Darren Cooper on football: Jabrill Peppers, Chris Partridge give back to Jersey

WALDWICK — Having played multiple positions already in his college football career, Jabrill Peppers tried on a new role as coach/mentor Saturday afternoon.

The former Paramus Catholic star and current Michigan redshirt sophomore spent his afternoon at Superdome Sports working with kids at the Game Changers youth football camp.
Former Paramus Catholic head coach and current Michigan linebackers coach Chris Partridge was nearby working the camp as well.
“I feel like it’s your duty to come back,” said Peppers. “If you were fortunate enough to make it and you have people who look up to you and want to hear what you’re saying, why not do it? Why not?”
“We got the weekend off, but I’m too restless to take the whole weekend off,” said Partridge. “Jabrill happened to be home as well, so we figured we would come over and try to help out. I have a lot of pride in New Jersey football.”
Both left before the high school-aged kids arrived, as per the new NCAA rules banning college coaches from working so-called satellite camps that are off-campus.
Wearing neon green and red cleats and a purple hat from his fraternity, Peppers watched the aspiring defensive backs work and threw passes to them. He seemed to genuinely enjoy his time, offering pointers and posing for pictures.
“This brings back memories,” said Peppers. “That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to do it, just because there were guys who took time out to do it for me. It meant a lot to me. Once you see that someone made it from your community, that gives you a lot of hope.”
Peppers and Partridge have been linchpins of a pipeline of talent that sprung up seemingly overnight from New Jersey to Ann Arbor. It continued this past fall when the Wolverines received commitments from DePaul standout running back Kareem Walker and Paladins star defensive lineman Rashan Gary.
“It feels good to say that you maybe started the trend,” said Peppers. “But at the end of the day, we just want ballers and it happens than most of the ballers are from Jersey. We all know each other. We grew up around the same area. We want the same thing. We all love to play football. We are just trying to go out there and dominate and show them how New Jersey does it.”
Peppers was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year last season after doing a little bit of everything for the Wolverines. He played safety, cornerback and nickelback on defense. On offense, he lined up at quarterback in two games and carried the ball 18 times as a running back. He also returned punts and kickoffs.
The latest buzz out of Ann Arbor had Peppers playing linebacker in spring ball; interestingly enough, that would mean Partridge would be his coach. Again.
Partridge laughed when asked if Peppers would be a linebacker this fall.
“We’ll see,” Partridge said smiling. “Is he going to be a linebacker? No. But will he be a linebacker? Sometimes.”
Michigan will have a new defensive coordinator, the well-regarded Don Brown who led Boston College’s No. 1-ranked defense in 2015. Peppers called him a “cool grandpa” figure. But like most defenses in football now, they are trying to find a way to match offenses that spread the field horizontally and put athletes in various spots.
“My position definitely has some linebacker tendencies, but I’m not going to just be sitting at linebacker the whole time,” said Peppers. “They’ll be doing a lot with me in terms of using my skill set to my best advantage and to my team’s best advantage. It’s like a nickel[back], but in Coach Brown’s defense it’s considered a Sam [strong side] backer. It’s kind of a hybrid, bigger defensive back.”
Peppers said he weighed 207 and was getting on a flight back to Ann Arbor today. He is on track to graduate and will be NFL Draft eligible after this season — Peppers missed most of his true freshman season with a knee injury.
Under new coach Jim Harbaugh, the Wolverines finished 10-3 in 2015 and ranked No. 12 in the final Associated Press poll. They crushed Florida in the Citrus Bowl, 41-7, a game Peppers missed with a hand injury.
Michigan will be considered a contender for a Big Ten and national title in 2016. Don’t be surprised if Gary plays right away — he’s that good — and Peppers should be even better contributing in multiple ways.
“We just want to improve from last year,” said Peppers. “We lost a couple of games we should have won. We just have to finish. That’s the main thing, just finish games. We don’t want to give anyone room to breathe, that’s our main thing right now.”Source-northjersey