The Zeitgeist List · coaching

Charlie Partridge

Followed Carl Pelini. Charlie Partridge held Florida Atlantic at Regional Program IV for 3 seasons.

9–27
2014–2016 · 1 stint
← all coaches

Career arc

His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.

Stature score reached, by season of his head-coaching careerFLORIDA ATLANTICRegional Programthe building-block levelFlorida Atlantic, 2014: 3-9, Regional Program IV2014Florida Atlantic, 2015: 3-9, Regional Program IV2015Florida Atlantic, 2016: 3-9, Regional Program IV2016+0.3One point per coached season, in career order; dashed segments are program changes — spacing is not proportional to calendar time

Reached Regional Program in his 1st career season — faster than 20% of the 925 FBS coaches who have ever reached Regional Program (rank #1 of 925 by seasons-to-arrival).

Florida Atlantic, 3 seasons
+0.3
Regional Program IV → Regional Program IV.

Style position and drift

Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.

40%Florida Atlantic2014–2016▼ 1.5pt
Pass rate — share of offensive plays that were pass attemptsfirst covered seasonmost recent covered seasonfull season-to-season range (3+ covered seasons)
How much that is, against every other stint

Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.

Typical stint7.010.2 median13.9middle half of all stints
Florida Atlantic1.5pt#254 of 258 · less than most

The big-game ledger

How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.

Winless in 3 tries against Doc Holliday.

One-score games
4–12
25.0% · margin ≤8
vs. Blue Blood or better
0–1
0.0%
The toughest matchup
vs. Doc Holliday0–3
3 meetings, 2014–2016
’14 L · blew a 6-pt lead’15 L’16 L
0% win rate across a real, 3-meeting series — short of the bar this site uses before badging a series “Nemesis.” Shown here as the toughest matchup on record, not an algorithmic crown.
Performance by opponent class
Dynasty
0–1 0.0%
Blue Blood
0–1 0.0%
Power Program
0–4 0.0%
National Program
0–4 0.0%
Regional Program
8–17 32.0%

His own effect, isolated

A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.

Offense marginal impact
-0.22
#245 of 319 · less than most
Defense marginal impact
-0.24
#280 of 325 · less than most

Model fit as of 2026-09-04.

Coaching career

2014–2016
Florida Atlanticcaretaker
Regional Program IV → Regional Program IV
Charlie Partridge held Florida Atlantic at Regional Program IV for 3 seasons.

7th-best Florida Atlantic tenure of 9 by the numbers.

Recruiter or developer?

Underperforms his recruiting talent on offense and performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on defense.

Offense vs. talent
-14.8 pts
#162 of 208 · less than most
Defense vs. talent
-12.2 pts
#155 of 208 · a typical amount
Recruiting talent is team-wide (no offense/defense split exists in the source data) -- both sides are scored against the same talent input, only the outcome is side-specific.

Followed Carl Pelini (2012–2013) · succeeded by Lane Kiffin (2017–2019).

Season201420152016Trend
Record & result
Record3–93–93–9
Postseason
Recruiting rank#94#79#89
Style — pass rate
Pass rate45.244.043.7
Coordinators
OCBrian WrightBrian WrightTravis Trickett
DCRoc BellantoniRoc BellantoniRoc Bellantoni
Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile
Offense341345
Defense21640
Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only)
1st-down pass%44.843.740.8
Red-zone pass%31.144.428.9
4th-down go%opp. territory25.041.122.9
Does the system survive a coordinator change?
OC: Brian Wright → Travis Trickett · 2016
13th pct45th pct0th100th
1-season window either side — numbers shown, not enough to badge a verdict.
1st-down pass rate: 43.7% → 40.8% (-2.9 pts)
Confound, shown not hidden: only 42% of offensive production returned the year the coordinator changed — the roster turned over at the same time, not just the play-caller.
Where the roster comes from, by position
Grows Tight end from high school
100%
#164 of 188 stints
Grows Edge from high school
100%
#191 of 208 stints

4 NFL Draft picks: Keith Reaser (2014), Randell Johnson (2014), D'Joun Smith (2015), Trey Hendrickson (2017)

9–27