The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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THE WOLVERINE 2024 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ■ 63 end in the nation last year. Michigan wide receivers coach Ron Bellamy peeks over at the tight ends and marvels at what Loveland brings to The Big House and beyond. "He's smooth," Bellamy said. "I love watching him play. Coach [Grant] New- some did a great job with him, and Coach Casula has taken that over. Colston's ex- panding his game. It's fun to watch. "He works hard at his craft, he's always asking questions and he's like a sponge. He's taking all that knowledge and ab- sorbing it. "I always see him in the tight end room, and he's watching film and he's watching the Travis Kelces of the world and some of the other elite guys in college football and throughout the NFL. He's just trying to expand his game. "He's the ultimate team player. As great as he is in the passing game, he's equally as good in the run game. He's relentless. He's a warrior. Sometimes you show the receivers, 'This is the best tight end in America, and this is what he's doing.' "He may have a go route — he's clearing it out and busting his butt to get someone else open. If he's doing it, everyone else should be doing it. I think he sets a great example for this football team, and we're lucky to have him." Self-Aware Beyond The Hype Loveland insists he's come a long way in run blocking, but he's not ready to de- clare himself a finished product there. Michigan football radio analyst Jon Jan- sen concurs, noting the key for the vet- eran Wolverine to make it big as an NFL tight end involves continuing to bump up his blocking game. Loveland also studies ways he can improve his production even more in the passing attack. " W h e n I wa s wa tc h i n g t h e ta p e throughout the season, I was open a lot of the time, but maybe later," Loveland explained. "Maybe the QB is off the pro- gression already. It's just creating more space and doing that by more route de- tail. I was good just big-bodying people and using my size, but there's also room for me to use my speed to get away from people, which creates more opportunity for YAC [yards after catch]. "I've got to get better at a lot of things — run game, especially. But it's been a really productive spring." Casula served on Jim Harbaugh's staff from 2019-21 as an offensive analyst. He left to put in two seasons as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Massachusetts, then returned to Ann Arbor this offseason to handle the tight ends. Loveland appreciates what the fa- miliar face brought into the mix, in terms of the junior's further honing of his game. "He's done a really good job in the route detail, especially," Loveland said. "I'm feeling really good." As far as making sure the ball doesn't escape when it arrives, Loveland under- stands it comes down to a time-honored essential — hard work, and doing it over and over and over. "It's just reps, catches," he said. "Whether that's getting on the Jugs [machine] and catching however many balls a day or running the routes or static catching — it's beneficial. But catching when you're running the routes — that's the stuff, the timing. We've been do- ing it throughout the winter, and we'll continue doing it in the summer and just keep building the bond with the quarter- backs." Loveland knew exactly who would be feeding him the football a year ago. J.J. McCarthy stood ready to guide Michigan to 15-0, completing perhaps the greatest two-year run of any Michigan quarter- back in history. Things have changed, with junior Alex Orji, senior Davis Warren and seventh- year graduate QB Jack Tuttle vying to be- come the man behind center this season. All of their top targets know better than to distinguish between them at this point. That doesn't mean Loveland stayed tight lipped on their upside. "First of all, they're all great guys, fun guys to be around," he said. "That makes it easy. I'm super close with all of them. I've just been getting reps with every one of them. Just by doing that, it builds the chemistry we're talking about. Those guys have been battling it out. They're doing a really good job, and I'm excited to keep seeing them work." Beyond their camaraderie, each of them demonstrates attributes that could put them in charge. "They each have an individual skill set that they excel at," Loveland said, point- ing to specifics for the three QBs who were healthy in the spring. "Orji, he's got it on his feet. He's good with his legs. [ Jayden] Denegal throws a good ball. Warren throws a good ball.