Name: Colston Loveland
Height: 6'5"
Weight: 230 lbs.
High school: Gooding (ID) Gooding
Position: Tight end
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: #18
Last year: Loveland was a senior in high school (LINK). He caught 62 passes for 968 yards and 14 touchdowns; rushed 33 times for 352 yards and 4 touchdowns; and made 66 tackles, 18.5 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, and 2 touchdowns.
TTB Rating: 65 85
Loveland came a little bit out of nowhere during the 2022 recruiting cycle to suddenly be at the forefront of Michigan's tight end recruiting situation. He was thin as a junior and did not have great film, but reports out of Idaho were that he had hit a growth spurt and improved as an athlete. And he did. He got bigger and better. Now listed at 6'5" and 230 pounds, he had good senior film for a tight end and was a real focal point of Gooding's team, playing wide receiver, tight end, quarterback, outside linebacker, some safety, etc. A tight end who can score 18 touchdowns in a season is tough to come by.
While I upped Loveland's TTB Rating from a 65 to an 85, I don't think the early enrollee is going to play much of a factor on the field this season. Michigan returns three senior tight ends who all played a big role last year, and that doesn't even include walk-on Carter Selzer, who has received increased reps the past two years. Michigan got 57 catches from tight ends next year, and all that production returns in 2022. It would probably be best if Loveland can redshirt this season since there's not much room for him to contribute.
Prediction: Redshirt
Yeah, that's great numbers for a TE .Yeah, he's still too skinny . Is Muchigan really going to throw to the TE more? Maybe with Matt Weiss they are going to open up some more passing, and put that failed 'speed in space' out if its system .
ReplyDeleteWon the big ten with speed in space.
DeleteWell no .By the end of the season Josh Gattis wasn't running the offense. He left Michigan in a huff because of that. There's an ungly rumor of what happened.
DeleteBut also, Matt Weiss was doing a great job, and was given more and more control. Last year was more his offense that Josh Gattis.
"The Broyles Award-winning OC wasn't running the offense" is quite a hot take. And then he got hired away for substantially more money despite that? Strange things happen but this speculation doesn't pass the sniff test.
DeleteI'm fine giving credit to Harbaugh or Moore, because the OL was excellent and named best in the nation, but to bypass Moore AND Gattis to give the relatively unheralded QB coach all the credit (when QB play was OK at best) smells a certain kind of way.
Here's what I saw. A power run game (Harbaugh signature with Moore imprint) making life easy for Gattis and Weiss. The pass game was decent - not great - despite a great OL, 5-star QB option, and very good skill position talent. The characteristics of that pass game leaned to speed over size - Gattis imprint. The biggest WR was Cornelius Johnson (fine but unexceptional) and after him it was Wilson (blazer) and Sainristil (slot guy). Where the pass game was successful was exploiting favorable speed matchups (leading receivers after Johnson include All, Edwards, and Corum) and sub packages featuring run threat QBs plus WR runs pretty much every game . I'd say this fits speed in space.
Gattis might be overrated, he might have gotten a lot of support from Harbaugh, Moore, and others, but he proved his doubters wrong last year. The Michigan offense thrived under Gattis - this is indisputable. He parlayed that into a big pay raise - also not up for dispute. Credit where it's due.
I don't like how he left but I can understand it in that context. More importantly, it doesn't change the results that Gattis got here.
The elephant in the room is why the offense looked so much different/better in 2021 than it did in the previous couple seasons. I mean, maybe Sherrone Moore is just that much better than Ed Warinner or maybe Cade McNamara is just a superstar compared to Milton/Patterson, but SOMETHING changed.
DeleteMaybe Gattis shouldn't go totally uncredited - I think he deserves some credit - but I've said this before: It's not a coincidence that Michigan's offense suddenly looked like the Baltimore Ravens', sans the running QB, with Matt Weiss at QB. Either Gattis finally took advice from Harbaugh based on his days with Greg Roman, or Gattis took advice from Matt Weiss.
Excited about Lovelands future.
ReplyDeleteOT but interesting:
https://twitter.com/tejfbanalytics/status/1543945824949895169?t=sJjKFrgVd8Sr3ajEjbkLjw&s=19