Michigan badly wanted at least two, if not three, tight ends in this class after going 1/2 on their top prospects the last few years because one of those top prospects blew up into a national recruit. This time Jay Harbaugh's peerless tight end scouting couldn't beat Alabama to offer the latest jump ball receiver from nowhere to grow a butt. But he did manage to pull in the recruit. Let's see what he's won:

Committed 〽️ @UMichFootball @JayHarbaugh pic.twitter.com/ypgUTOyutM

— Colstonloveland (@colstonlovelan1) July 5, 2021

GURU RATINGS

Rivals: 6-5/230	ESPN: 6-4/230	247: 6-5/230	247 Comp
3*, 5.7, NR Ovr #18 TE, #1 ID	3*, 79, NR Ovr, #8 TE-H, #66 West, #1 ID	4*, 90, #280 Ovr #13 TE, #1 ID	3*, .8715, #588 Ovr, #30 TE, #1 ID
3.79* ⬆⬆	3.86* ➡	4.02* ⬆⬆	3.72*⬆

Arrows show trend of recruiting rankings. An arrow is like a third of a star.

24/7 notes he’s their highest-ranked recruit from Idaho since 2018 (don’t look). That works out to a 3.85*, a tad higher than Matthew Hibner, who was the same size and like Loveland was a late riser from an odd place who had a very high (#156 overall) ranking on 24/7 offset by low scores from Rivals and ESPN, though this time they’re all a lot closer to each other. Oh and Idaho is further off the typical recruiting map than Burke, Virginia. And Loveland is two inches taller.

Rivals and 24/7 both bumped Loveland up the rankings late this spring, after tape of his first season at tight end got about. Bama offered in March, Michigan followed in April, and by June there were LSU and Auburn offers. He took an official to Michigan, and that went so well on both sides that Loveland set a commitment date and the Michigan staff weren’t even hiding the fact they thought they’d struck gold.

[Hit THE JUMP for scouting, video, and the rest.]

SCOUTING

24/7 has an eval from national recruiting editor Brandon Huffman, who compares Loveland to former Stanford TE Austin Hooper, now of the Browns:

Loveland is a former receiver who has bulked up and is now a traditional tight end, able to stay in-line and block, or split out wide and match up against linebackers or DBs. He's a natural pass-catcher, with soft hands, good, crisp routes, and ball skills to go and high-point it. Can make people miss in the open field and routinely gets yards after the catch. Also plays defensive end, with good pass rushing ability, leverage and technique. Loveland is also a high-level basketball player and boasts a 79-inch wing-span.

Hooper’s a contested ball magnet, and a technically sound and willing, but not strong blocker. After not ranking a guy from Idaho above three stars in four classes, 24/7 bumped Colston up to a 90 in February after catching him at a Seattle 7v7 event in December, but he was on their radars going back to an Idaho camp in July 2020:

Then at the RARE Showcase in Boise, he was the top 2022 prospect at the event. "Colston killed it against all defensive backs and linebackers," said RARE Showcase founder Juss Jackson. "He showed his quick moves to separate from defenders. He's the No. 1 prospect in the state (for 2022) for a reason."

Huffman was predicting a lot more interest after that, “especially with more film of Loveland playing defensive end” making the rounds. Now that we have the Bentley Library films available I’m going to push Brian to make a comp to Paul Goebel or Frank Petoskey or Bennie Oosterbaan.

His coach, Cameron Andersen, talked to Huffman last spring when the Alabama offer came in:

“Colston is a special player for us, and more importantly, a special leader for us," said Andersen. "He leads by example, and has a special ability of holding teammates accountable all while caring deeply for them. His competitive nature is contagious, and the team thrives off of this." …

"Colston switched from receiver to tight end this season and adapted well from day one," said Andersen. "He went from a 6-0, 170-pound freshman starting at X receiver as a freshman to walking in this season at 6-5, 215 pounds and now has risen to 230 pounds with a 6’7 (79-inch) wingspan. He works tirelessly in the weight room on his physical growth, and constantly works on his craft. Colston is also a standout basketball player. We anticipate him playing at 6-5 235-240 next season as a tight end and outside linebacker on defense."

Loveland spoke to a Utah site last July about his strengths and weaknesses($):

"My hands are definitely up there, but I definitely need to show that I can block, and then I'm always trying to get strong and faster."

And shared what Arizona State’s coaches were telling him with a couple of ASU sites. The 24/7 one:

“He said he liked my film,” Loveland said. “He liked how I can catch the ball and he said the route-running is there. He likes how I’ve gained weight and height since my sophomore season.

And the Rivals one:

He has been telling me what kind of tight end he needs in this (ASU) offense and that he likes that they're gonna need to get flex tight end like me that run good routes in space and obviously catch the ball well, and he thinks I could fit that role best.

And repeated all that to a Colorado site:

“I define myself as a hybrid more than anything," he said. "I played some receiver freshman and sophomore year, so I kind of got everything there and after learning the tight end stuff, I think my routes are pretty crisp.”

Sam Webb and Steve Lorenz discussed how the staff sees Loveland on their recent podcast (about 39:20):

Word was he completely blew the Michigan staff away. This is a guy that they believe is going to be a star. He’s already a 4-star, but if played in Florida or Texas or California he’d be a top-100 guy. He’d probably be ranked where Oscar Delp is.

Later, when discussing possibly getting all three of their top targets, Sam said Loveland is physically ready to play immediately; the only thing holding him back is the level of competition is going to jump considerably from his Idaho opponents.

Rivals noticed Loveland finally in October, but it sounds like they noticed:

Loveland will probably grow into a flex tight end (pretty much where he plays now as he’s still listed as a receiver), because he could still add significant weight to his frame. With his athletic ability, Loveland could be one of the better prospects out of Idaho in a long time.

When the Alabama offer came Loveland spoke to national recruiting director Adam Gorney about what the Tide saw:

“He said he really likes my tape and how I’m flexible to play outside and with my hand in the dirt, kind of that hybrid tight end.”

I am pretty sure he meant “Flex-able” there—Bama differentiates between their inline guys and the quasi-receivers.

OFFERS

Bama’s offer was, by all accounts, a committable one. LSU and Auburn offered recently. Utah was on him first, and ASU—where his brother’s good friend goes to school—was in early as well, as well as Boise State, Oregon State, and Nevada. Arizona and UCLA came in in January, Colorado joined in March. His other official visits were to Arizona, Arizona State, and Oregon State.

HIGH SCHOOL

Gooding, Idaho, calls itself a dairy town of about 3,500 people, part of a fertile stretch of the Snake River Basin in the southern end of the state, about 30 minutes north of Twin Falls. That is extremely modest; it is the site of the world’s largest factory for barrel cheese, which is the starting point for all the processed cheeses—sliced cheese and “cheddar” bricks and string cheeses—in America. Unless you purposely avoid processed cheeses or stick strictly to the biggest name brand I guarantee you’ve had some Gooding cheese at some point. If you track down a circa 2006 (I can’t remember which month) edition of Pollution Engineering you can learn all about the design of their fascinating wastewater pre-treatment plant, as well as see how far my writing has come.

Needless to say there haven’t been a lot of blue chips out of Gooding; in fact he’s the first one the whole Twin Falls region ever produced. Of all the consensus 4-stars in Idaho history, one (Tanner Mangum) is from the Boise area, two (ND’s Tristen Hoge and Ohio State’s Tommy Togiai) were from Pocatello in the East, and the other three (Colson Yankoff, Carson York, and Chase Blakely) came from Couer d’Alene, which is up in the panhandle near Spokane, WA. The Wolverines recently had a long-snapper, Matt Baldeck from Lewiston, which is where the Washington border hits the Snake River a couple hours south of Couer d’Alene, but he’s no longer on the roster. You have to go back to 1943 for the last one, and the Yost era for one before that.

Loveland is friends with CA 3* QB Katin Houser, who’s originally from Idaho and flipped from a Boise State commitment to Michigan State this week. Maybe now they’ll check in and see if Houser wants to move a few couple spots up the in-state ladder.

STATS

Via MaxPreps:

Year	Yards	Catches	TDs
Junior	816	69	6
Soph (WR)	1147	91	14
Frosh (WR)	210	13	1
Total	2173	173	21

He was 1st team SCIC on both sides of the ball as a sophomore and junior, 1st team all-State both years, and 1st team all-Idaho in basketball in 2019.

FAKE 40 TIME

None listed. I’ll make one up: 4.65. Five FAKES out of five because I made it up. His Hudl lists a 3.83 GPA.

VIDEO

More video, including sophomore highlights and individual reels, can be found on his Hudl page.

PREDICTION BASED ON FLIMSY EVIDENCE

Just watch the first two clips, which are a one-handed stab and a leaping grab in traffic that his QB underthrew. Most of the rest are “D-1 prospect murderates Idaho football” clips. Encouragingly more than a few of those are catches with multiple sorry Idaho footballers gamely trying to stop the inevitable. You should, by now, be familiar enough with Massachusetts and Virginia tight end prospect film to get the idea.

Loveland could potentially contribute as a flex receiver in 2022, though we’ll know much more about the pecking order between Erick All, Luke Schoonmaker, Matthew Hibner, and Louis Hansen after 2021. Those guys are all in different classes but All and Schoonmaker will still have junior eligibility and Hibner and Hansen will be sophomores (unless Hansen takes a redshirt, which is unlikely). If they’re all back that should give Loveland a year to get used to Big Ten football, and to bulk up into a Big Ten-level blocker. I expect we’ll see him in the mix by 2023, probably as a flex type at first, though Michigan has a good record, especially when Jay Harbaugh’s at tight ends, of developing these guys into passable blockers.

UPSHOT FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS

Michigan, which still likes to use multiple tight ends, finally has two of them committed for the first time since 2018, breaking a cycle in which they’ve routinely locked up one build-a-guy they scouted early and miss out on a blow-up guy they scouted early. Build-a-guy Marlin Klein, who needs some time in the weight room, and Colston Loveland would be a solid tight end class that needed to restock. Michigan isn’t going to stop their pursuit of GA 4* Oscar Delp, for whom Michigan was the first offer, but Georgia’s might be too tough to beat. With the receiver board not looking great in this class, they can definitely fit an extra tight end in there, especially since Loveland is 75% receiver anyways.

They still look good for TX 3* Dillon Bell as a RB/WR hybrid, and (correction from Friday’s recruiting roundup) AL 3* Marquarius White from Nico Collins’s high school, was in fact on campus last weekend—thank you to the reader who ran into them in front of Pizza House, and are after TX 3* slot receiver Che Nwabuko since top target Kaleb Brown was added to The Collective in Columbus. They would also like to finish out the offensive class with another two or three linemen. How all of that goes probably depends a lot on how the season does.