In Michigan return, Chris Partridge finds ‘A-plus’ culture led by Jim Harbaugh

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When Chris Partridge left the Michigan football program in January 2020, it was on the precipice of a downward slide.
The Wolverines had just finished the season 9-4 after being picked to win the Big Ten and were unknowingly about to enter a dark period in time. Not only was a global pandemic about to begin, but Michigan fielded a team that even struggled to keep up with some of the league’s basement dwellers.
Partridge, a former high school coach who joined Jim Harbaugh’s staff in 2015 in an off-field role before transitioning to a full-time coach, was on to bigger and better things. He became a co-defensive coordinator at Ole Miss, where he spent three seasons, took the reins of the unit fully in 2022 and was ultimately let go after last season.
That ultimately led to a staff shakeup in Ann Arbor in late-February, when Harbaugh dismissed linebackers coach George Helow and brought on Partridge, who walked into a different looking Schembechler Hall than the one he left more than 36 months ago.
“The victory stuff for the Ohio State game, No. 1,” Partridge quipped Wednesday. “That’s exciting to see.”
Jokes aside, the Harbaugh-led program has turned a corner in the last two years, capturing back-to-back Big Ten titles and reaching consecutive College Football Playoff bids, a feat Partridge was unable to reach during his brief stint in the Southeastern Conference.
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He’s also noticed a different vibe in the building, one he described as an “A-plus culture.”
“When I was here the first time, it was kind of just still developing,” said Partridge, who was on the coaching staff from 2016 to ‘19. “We weren’t there yet. Jim’s culture was developing in who he is, and now it embodies who he is.”
Players who were around back then (they have grown few and far between) describe a time that was far different than now. As they explain it, some players were only there to reach the NFL as quickly as possible. Some of the coaches at the time were not willing to adapt and connect with those on the roster.
Much of that has changed since, with a new crop of players having cycled through the program, a new identity born on defense (with a different profile of player being recruited) and, perhaps most importantly, more winning. Not only has Michigan won the Big Ten the last two years, but it has flipped the Ohio State rivalry on its head.
“That’s what this team is, they’re Jim,” Partridge, 42, said. “Hard working, blue collar, consistent. They play with no fear. They know he has their back, and they have his back.”
Michigan is currently under investigation by the NCAA for multiple infractions involving the football program, for recruiting and off-field rules. Harbaugh himself has been slapped with a three-game suspension for an alleged Level I violation, the most severe, for allegedly not cooperating.
In his new role, Partridge is tasked with leading a talented and experienced linebacker room, a group led by all-Big Ten players Junior Colson and Michael Barrett. Nebraska transfer Ernest Hausmann is also expected to contribute and provide much-needed depth.
Barrett, in his sixth year at Michigan, is one of the few players still on the roster who knew Partridge. The assistant coach recruited him to Michigan in 2018.
“I was ecstatic to hear that he was coming back,” Barrett, voted one of three defensive captains by his teammates, said. “He was the guy that I feel like led me to come up here to Michigan.”
He also has other duties and responsibilities, like bringing along younger linebackers like Jaydon Hood and reestablishing recruiting connections in the midwest and northeast, where he helped Michigan haul in some high-prized high school prospects during his first tenure in Ann Arbor.
But much like the culture, the profile of the player has changed, too. The Wolverines have recruited a bigger, stronger body type in recent years and instituted a varied three and four-man front, emphasizing power and versatility against bigger foes in the Big Ten and nationally. When Partridge was on staff during his first go around, the program recruited smaller, faster players who could chase the ball.
“You need to recruit guys that can process, can think, can adjust, can have answers to a lot of different things on the field, (and) to be able to adapt through a practice, throughout halftime,” Partridge said. “Guys that can really play and think and are at different level.”
Seven months in and Partridge’s return is already rubbing off on some of the younger linebackers, like junior Jaydon Hood who credits his new position coach with teaching him some of the nuances of the game that has him ready to take the field.
“I’m learning not only the game, but how to learn the game,” Hood said. “I’ve really created a lot of habits and that’s something we preach: We don’t look at the goal — we look at the process and habits to get there.”
Partridge said he learned a lot during his time away at Ole Miss, where he coached under Lane Kiffin and was charged with organizing an entire defense. This time, he’s “back home coaching the linebackers.”
“I’ve seen different things, I’ve gotten different experiences,” Partridge said. “It has made me such a better linebacker coach, to have been with the safeties, been in the SEC, coordinated a defense and seeing how offenses attack down there. I’ve grown a lot.”