Jay Harbaugh details discovery of Colston Loveland, how Michigan scouts players

The Michigan Wolverines have contributions from up and down the roster regardless of recruiting rankings. It’s that type of nucleus and eye for talent from the coaching staff that has kept them in the championship conversation in recent years.

But one of the most talented finds came from safeties coach/special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh, who has made a habit out of finding diamonds in the rough over the years. From Ronnie Bell to Hassan Haskins, Harbaugh has mined some great talent from non-traditional recruiting-rich areas.

The latest might be sophomore tight end Colston Loveland, who quickly found a role in the Michigan offense after playing his high school ball in Idaho. Loveland is now the team’s top tight end option in year two and has 14 catches for 168 yards in four games. And there’s plenty of optimism around his continued growth.

“From the first time I saw him it was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this guy’s this guy’s ridiculous,'” Harbaugh told the media on Wednesday afternoon. “If he didn’t live where he happened to live, just from an exposure standpoint, I don’t think he would have surprised anyone at all. But the reality is he was out there in a really small town off the beaten path.

“When you saw him in person, it’s like, ‘Oh my goodness. He really is one of the best high school prospects that I’ve ever seen. It’s just fun watching him be able to be here and be such a great teammate, great person, and become the player that he’s capable of being. The sky is the limit. He’s gonna keep getting better and better. Really a huge fan of him.”

Loveland was a four-star prospect who ranked No. 268 nationally in the 2022 class, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. He was one of the best-kept secrets in the country coming out of high school, and Harbaugh detailed how he finds players of his caliber.

“Going through lists, watching guys and you just kind of go from top to bottom,” he said. “Sometimes guys catch your eye. Sometimes you don’t like other guys as much. You move past the guy and then circle back and double-check on this guy again. He’s one where he seemed really good and seemed like a good player. Great ball skills. A guy who was crazy productive. He was returning punts and stuff. I mean, doing everything, played defensive end, played safety. He did everything on the football field.

“But you don’t recruit many players from that area of the country. So you circle back later and compare his tape and you’re like, ‘Man, this guy’s pretty interesting.’ Then you got to go actually see him in person. That’s when it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh. He really is the best or one of the very best prospects at that position in the country.”

Harbaugh, Michigan staff focus on intangibles

Michigan’s recruiting has come under fire at times over the years, but the staff has found ways to add foundational players to the mix, prospect or team rankings be damned. Harbaugh does not see himself as better at his job than his peers, but U-M has a shared philosophy on discovering players.

“The thing I would say that we do a great job as coaches here, in general, is really watching the film and watching the games and not just believing what other people say about a player,” Harbaugh said. “In recruiting, that is not the norm. People watch the highlights and they see what a guy can do. And they don’t always go and watch what a guy is really like play in and play out when it seems like a play doesn’t matter.

“How does he compete? What’s his body language like? How do his teammates respond to him? You can learn a lot about a guy by doing that. And a lot of the great players that we’ve had here have been those types of people. But when you observe them with no preconceived notions, you see real competitors and guys that their coaches really love and teammates really love and they celebrate with their teammates.”

Is there a secret sauce to being able to identify talent that others may not see? Harbaugh believes that if you watch the game ling enough, you can start applying past lessons to future scouting reports.

“It’s all pattern recognition,” Harbaugh said. “That’s all coaching is and playing football. You just spend enough reps to learn to recognize patterns and have them be associated with ideas in your mind that you can recognize and act on really, really quickly. Watching film of a high school guy is really the same thing.

“Our recruiting department and coaches do a really good job of that here.”