SOUTH BEND, Ind. \u2014 The connection began about the time Francis Brewu got his driver\u2019s license, back when he was still an undersized defensive tackle wondering what it would take to play college football. And it\u2019s no mystery why Charlie Partridge made an impression. The career defensive line coach specialized in players like Brewu, taking three-star prospects and developing them into potential pros. The fact that Partridge was doing it at Pittsburgh, the football program that produced Aaron Donald, didn\u2019t hurt, either.<\/p>\n
However, just as Brewu was signing with Pittsburgh two years ago, Partridge left for the Indianapolis Colts. And maybe that\u2019s when the relationship really began.<\/p>\n
While developing into an all-ACC defensive tackle the past two seasons, Brewu reached out to the coach who had recruited him for tips. And Partridge always picked up, as if he\u2019d never left, even if he knew he\u2019d never actually coach Brewu.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely huge because he wasn\u2019t coming back to college football, you know what I mean? That was solely for the purpose of helping me grow,\u201d Brewu said. \u201cAnd most coaches would have just ignored me. \u2026 He easily could have not picked up or changed his phone number. Not responding to me when I reached out and whatnot, but he always responded. He always gave me his time to help me out.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo knowing he still cared that much while he was at the next level played a huge part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sure enough, Brewu will finally play for Partridge, whose return to the college game comes alongside comeback stories up and down Notre Dame\u2019s defensive line. Partridge reunites with defensive coordinator Chris Ash. The two were college teammates at Drake and are now at their fourth different school together. Oregon transfer Tionne Gray gets a chance to play closer to his St. Louis home after the defensive tackle spent two seasons in the Pacific Northwest. There\u2019s defensive tackle Jason Onye, who was granted a sixth season of college football after he missed more than half his junior year after leaving the team. And defensive end Keon Keeley gets a do-over with Notre Dame after de-committing from the Irish to sign with Alabama three years ago. He\u2019ll reunite with two high school teammates: defensive assistant Tre Reader<\/a> and cornerback Dallas Golden.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve gone through lots of ups and downs, and the only thing that you can do is continue to persevere,\u201d Keeley said. \u201cI just feel like this is a blessing to be in this opportunity, and I feel like it\u2019s at the perfect time. There\u2019s no better opportunity than to be here at Notre Dame.\u201d<\/p>\n And of course, there\u2019s Partridge and Brewu.<\/p>\n Brewu will not only get to play for Partridge at Notre Dame, but he will also be coached by an assistant fresh off a valuable two years in the NFL. Brewu gets a better version of Partridge, and Partridge gets a better version of Brewu.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s learned how to coach at that level. He knows what the NFL demands,\u201d Brewu said. \u201cSo now he can bring what the NFL demands and demand that from us. So we\u2019re already prepared while we\u2019re in college to go compete when our name is called at the next level. It\u2019s huge.\u201d<\/p>\n This is all part of the reason why Irish coach Marcus Freeman let Ash reshuffle the defensive staff, moving Al Washington to linebackers coach (before Washington left for the Miami Dolphins) and bringing in Partridge to upgrade the defensive line. After a season of lamenting that Notre Dame wasn\u2019t getting enough pressure with four pass rushers and that the defensive scheme wasn\u2019t always aligned between the front four and the back seven, Ash wanted a line coach fluent in his playbook. After stops together at Drake, Wisconsin and Arkansas, Partridge had that part down.<\/p>\n \u201cRemember, what was the MTV show? \u2018The Real World?\u2019 Right? Stop being nice, start getting real. Me and Chris are way beyond where we have to be nice,\u201d Partridge said. \u201cWe can have real conversations without an emotional barrier, come to a solution and there\u2019s no problem.<\/p>\n \u201cSo there\u2019s no ego that gets in the way with me and him. Because we\u2019ve known each other so we can disagree and my respect for his vision on game day, that helps our back and forth.\u201d<\/p>\n Notre Dame needs these relationships to work because in order to make a run in the College Football Playoff next season instead of just making the field, the defensive line can\u2019t just be along for the ride. With a secondary that could be the best in the sport and a linebacker group that is more than capable, it\u2019s the line that feels like Notre Dame\u2019s biggest growth opportunity.<\/p>\n With Partridge taking over and Notre Dame adding Brewu, Keeley and Gray through the transfer portal, a position group that felt like a trip wire one month ago now looks more like a launching pad. The Irish return Boubacar Traore, Bryce Young, Elijah Hughes and Onye. The unit welcomes a four-man freshmen class that includes five-star defensive end Rodney Dunham. There\u2019s more material than Notre Dame can realistically play, and it\u2019s Partridge\u2019s job to figure out the workload share. He\u2019s a devotee of rotational play to a fault, unless there\u2019s a star in the group who can\u2019t come off the field. It remains to be seen how many of those Partridge might have.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way that we all, everybody in the room, can fit together and mix and anybody can play with anybody,\u201d Brewu said. \u201cI think we\u2019re gonna go into the season and be one of the top five defensive lines in the country, if not the best defensive line in the country because of the people we got in there.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s probably Brewu getting ahead of himself. Spring practices are still one month away. A season with real national title aspirations remains over the horizon. Still, this defensive line feels like it might be worth the wait. By reconnecting college teammates, reintroducing a former commitment and restarting a recruit-recruiter relationship, Notre Dame feels like it has the kind of defensive line the program needs.<\/p>\n No wonder the group can\u2019t wait to get started, with Partridge leading the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTH BEND, Ind. \u2014 The connection began about the time Francis Brewu got his driver\u2019s license, back when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48,4732],"class_list":{"0":"post-762723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-notre-dame-fighting-irish"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116098196043099368","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}