Gooding (ID) Gooding tight end Colston Loveland committed to Michigan on Sunday evening. He picked Michigan over Alabama, Auburn, LSU, and others.
Loveland is listed at 6’5″ and 230 lbs. As a junior, he caught 69 passes for 816 yards and 6 touchdowns.
RATINGS
ESPN: 3-star TE, 79 grade, #8 TE
Rivals: 3-star TE, 5.7 grade
247 Sports: 4-star, 90 grade, #13 TE
Hit the jump for more on Loveland’s commitment.
Loveland was offered by Michigan in April, and things progressed rather quickly. Alabama’s offer preceded Michigan’s, and LSU’s offer came afterward, but Loveland seemed to be high on the Wolverines from the jump and canceled a previously scheduled visit to Colorado in favor of visiting Ann Arbor. He took that official to Michigan in late June and silently committed to the coaching staff on the trip, finally going public on the Fourth of July.
Loveland is listed at 6’5″ and 230 lbs., but he doesn’t quite look that tall or that heavy on film. He splits out wide quite a bit in high school, and the coaches at Gooding try to get him the ball in space since he appears to be their best athlete. He does a nice job of snagging the ball out of the air and has an ability to high point the ball. He has caught a lot of passes in his career (173, according to Hudl), so he has a lot of reps and experience catching the ball in traffic.
One thing he lacks is bulk. He needs to thicken up and get stronger for the next level. But the biggest drawback with Loveland is his lack of standout athleticism. I was a bit surprised when I first watched Loveland’s film a couple months ago, because for a guy with a ton of production and some big offers . . . he just doesn’t do very much on film. He plays against weak competition in Idaho, and yet his highlights are pretty ho-hum – no long touchdowns where he outruns everyone on the other team, no big runs where he just powers through tiny defenders, etc. For having 69 catches in his junior year alone, his highlights are fairly sparse.
Overall, I have a hard time getting too amped up about Loveland. He is a decent prospect, but his 247 Composite ranking (3-star, #588 overall) seems about accurate. He is not a difference-maker at the next level, in my opinion, because I don’t see him being dominant in a small Idaho school. (There are approximately 1,200 students in his whole school district, grades K-12.) Can he play at Michigan? Sure. Will defenses need to game plan to defend him? I doubt it.
Michigan now has 13 commitments in the class of 2022. Loveland is the second tight end, joining Marlin Klein. Michigan has had five total players from Idaho in school history, with the last one being walk-on long snapper Matt Baldeck from 2017-2019.
TTB Rating: 65
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