FootballScoop is proud to announce that Charlie Partridge (Pitt) is the 2022 FootballScoop Defensive Line Coach of the Year presented by AstroTurf as selected by prior winners.
Pittsburgh consistently harasses the quarterback more than any other program, and 2022 was another vintage year for sending opposing passers to the training room.
Pitt finished second in the nation with 48 sacks, the fourth consecutive season in which the Panthers have finished in the top five nationally. Pitt posted at least two sacks in every game and registered four or more five times. That included a run in which Pitt posted 22 sacks in a 4-game span, all wins: six against Syracuse, eight versus Virginia, two against Duke, and another six at Miami.
Eighteen Panthers recorded at least half a sack this season, and seven posted three or more. Defensive lineman Calijah Kancey tied for the team lead with seven, while fellow linemen Deslin Alexandre, Dayon Hayes, David Green and John Morgan III all posted at least three.
Pitt also excelled tackling ball carriers behind the line of scrimmage. The Panthers finished in the top 25 nationally with 89 TFLs (6.85 per game). Kacey led the team and tied for sixth in the ACC with 14 in 12 games, including 3.5 versus Georgia Tech, 2.5 against Syracuse and three against Virginia.
Unsurprisingly, Pitt was great against the run. The Panthers ranked eighth in the nation and first in the ACC at 98.92 yards per game allowed and 15th nationally at 3.35 yards per carry.
Kancey was a First Team All-ACC honoree, while Alexandre was an Honorable Mention All-ACC selection.
A Drake graduate, Partridge joined the coaching profession as a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 1996. This is his second stint at Pitt, having coached the Panthers from 2003-05 and since 2017, carrying assistant head coach responsibilities since 2018. Partridge spent 2014-16 as the head coach at Florida Atlantic. He has also coached at Iowa State, Eastern Illinois, Wisconsin and Arkansas.
The FootballScoop Coaches of the Year awards presented by AstroTurf are the only set of awards that recognize the most outstanding position coaches in college football. The finalists (Jeremy Garrett [Liberty], Pat Kuntz [James Madison], John Scott, Jr. [Penn State], Landius Wilkerson [South Alabama] and Partridge) were selected based off of nominations by coaches, athletic directors, and athletic department personnel. The prior winners selected this year's winner.
Previous winners of the Defensive Line Coach of the Year award are Dick Bumpas (TCU, 2008), Jim Panagos (Central Florida, 2009), Bill Kirelawich (West Virginia, 2010), Brick Haley (LSU, 2011), Randy Hart (Stanford, 2012), Ron Burton (Michigan State, 2013), Craig Kuligowski (Missouri, 2014), Bo Davis (Alabama, 2015), Greg Mattison (Michigan, 2016), Larry Johnson (Ohio State, 2017), Ron Burton and Chuck Bullough (Michigan State, 2018), David Turner (Florida, 2019), Charlie Partridge (Pittsburgh, 2020), and Shaun Nua (Michigan, 2021).
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