Max Bullough‘s move back to his alma mater set the wheels of Notre Dame’s first instance of coaching change musical chairs in motion. The Fighting Irish worked quickly to fill the void left behind by him.
First, they moved Al Washington from overseeing the defensive line to the linebackers. Then they hired Charlie Partridge from the Indianapolis Colts to coach the defensive line. ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg first reported that the Irish are set to hire Partridge, and Blue & Gold can confirm Rittenberg’s report.
Partridge began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Drake in 1996. He held the same position in 1997, which was the first year current Notre Dame defensive coordinator Chris Ash joined him there with an identical job title.
Partridge went on to become a graduate assistant at Iowa State in 1998-99, and Ash followed him, again, with the same designation in Ames in 2000-01. During those two seasons of overlap, Partridge was promoted to director of football operations.
Partridge and Ash linked up on the same coaching staff again from 2010-13. For the first three of those seasons, they were at Wisconsin. For the fourth, they were at Arkansas. They made it to the Rose Bowl three times with the Badgers, including as co-defensive coordinators in 2011 and 2012.
It’s been over a decade since Partridge and Ash coached together, but the connection was clearly still strong enough for them to want to reunite once more.
In the last dozen years, Partridge was the head coach at Florida Atlantic from 2014-16, the defensive line coach and co-defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh from 2017-23 and the defensive line coach for the Indianapolis Colts since 2024.
Partridge, 52, is a native of Florida. He started his college playing career with Ash at Drake in the early 1990s and finished it as a defensive lineman at Iowa State.
Partridge was FootballScoop’s defensive line coach of the year in 2020 and 2022 while at Pitt. He coached defensive tackle Calijah Kancey, a unanimous All-American and 2023 NFL Draft first round pick. Partridge coached a pair of consensus All-American defensive ends in 2020 in Patrick Jones II and Rashad Weaver.
Notre Dame DL coach Charlie Partridge coaching file
Pitt (2017-2023) — defensive line and assistant head coach
Florida Atlantic (2014-16) — head coach
Arkansas (2013) — assistant head coach and defensive line
Wisconsin (2008-13) — defensive line, special teams, associate head coach, co-defensive coordinator
Pitt (2003-07) — defensive line, special teams, linebackers
Eastern Illinois (2002) — defensive line and recruiting coordinator
Iowa State (1998-2001) graduate assistant, director of football operations
Drake (1996-97) graduate assistant