Coaching defensive line requires Charlie Partridge to focus on some of the smallest details on the football field.
His experience as a head coach taught him when to zoom out.
Partridge spent three seasons as the head coach at Florida Atlantic from 2014-16, an experience that continues to influence how he approaches his job now as Notre Dame's defensive line coach.
"The thing you do learn when you're a head coach is to think from 30,000 feet," Partridge said last week. "If you're a lifetime assistant, there's nothing wrong with that. I love what I do. I love what I do. I love coaching defensive line. Passionate about it. Very, very happy. But you do think different. You see the bigger picture."
That broader perspective extends all the way down to how Partridge wants his defensive linemen rushing the passer.
Sacks and TFLs may tell certain stories in postgame box scores, postseason analysis or coaching resumes, but Partridge understands there are situations when his unit needs to be focused on being part of the whole.
"You're able to understand how your segment affects the entire team," Partridge said. "Anything from behavior to accountability, which really is in the same realm to how we play and how we have to sometimes be unselfish.
"Sometimes if you're only a lifetime assistant, you're striving for, yes, those stats and those types of things. But sometimes you may make a poor decision as a defensive line coach on the 10-yard line with a rush-game choice or a rush-game coaching point, because you want to get that sack instead of, ‘Guys, it's either going to be a quick pass or a quarterback scramble. We need to navigate lanes, be ready to get our hands up, and if a sack happens, we thank the guys behind us for buying us time.’"
It's a lesson Partridge isn't sure he would have understood quite as well without spending time responsible for an entire program.
"I don't know that you always see those things if you don't get a chance to see it from a higher perspective," he said.
When the situation calls for the Irish d-line to get after the quarterback, Partridge's approach involves much more than just teaching a collection of pass-rush moves.
Understanding protections and maintaining proper rush lanes are part of the equation, so is recognizing how one rush can create an opportunity for a future one.
"You can't do the same thing or live in the same arena of pass rush all the time," Partridge said. "You can't always speed rush. You can't always power rush.
"There's certain guys that are going to have different moves in the speed arena and different ways to escape off of the power arena. And you've got to make sure that you're playing chess. Your one move has to set up the next. And your game sets up something possibly coming."
That requires Partridge to understand what each of his defensive linemen does best.
"There's a lot that goes into this combination," he said. "How we can attack those protections living in a power and speed bucket within what you're best at."
Sometimes the value of practicing a particular move has little to do with the move itself and more to do with developing another part of the player's technique.
“A lot of times, someone might be working on a move that might not necessarily be in their arena, but the lower body and what they're doing with their lower body has extreme value,” he said.
"There's even times where I'll say, ‘Player X, I know you might not use this. I'm not worried about that. I'm locked in more on your upper body.’"
Bryce Young provides an example of how Partridge is applying that detailed approach.
Young has already established himself as one of Notre Dame's most dangerous pass rushers, but Partridge continues searching for incremental improvements that can help the junior become more effective.
"It's just trying to make improvement every day," Partridge said. "You check a box every single day.
"You work on making something better, whether it's his level rush, making sure he's not getting past the quarterback, how to manage his hips in terms of being in line. You're working through all those things as you're talking about the potential moves to help him play fast. He's getting there."
Partridge may have recognized those small details earlier in his career, but his time overseeing an entire program gave him a greater appreciation for how they fit into the bigger picture.
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