Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi has hired Charlie Partridge to be the defensive line coach.
Partridge, 43, will make his second stint on the Panthers’ coaching staff. He held various roles on the Pitt staff from 2003 to 2007, including defensive line coach, special teams coach and linebackers coach.
He left Pitt in 2008 to take a similar position at Wisconsin. He was promoted to associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator in 2011. He left Wisconsin in 2013, following Bert Bielema to Arkansas, where he spent one season as defensive line coach.
In 2014, Partridge was named head coach at Florida Atlantic. He went 9-27 over three years with the Owls and was fired Nov. 27, 2016. After his dismissal was announced, Partridge’s former players were extremely vocal in their support of their former coach.
Partridge is known as an excellent recruiter, particularly in Florida, which is an area Pitt has targeted heavily in recent recruiting classes. The top 12 players that Partridge has gotten commits from have come from the Sunshine State, according to 247 Sports. Included in that list are Tommy Duhart and Jabaal Sheard, who Partridge helped recruit to Pitt during his tenure with the Panthers.
He is a Florida native and played collegiately at Drake University in Iowa. He got his coaching start at his alma mater as a graduate assistant in 1996. He also has coached at Iowa State and Eastern Illinois.
