Position Breakdown: Tight Ends

For our Position Breakdown series, we are going to take a look at each position group for Michigan Football with spring practices nearing a close.

How does the current depth chart shake out?
What are the storylines or things you should be watching heading into the summer and eventually of course the season?
What's the X factor, whether it's a player, coach, or situation that could change the way the group looks?

Let's talk about the big guys who have to block and catch.

This is a very different group than the one we discussed last season. We led 2022 talking about the duo of Erick All and Luke Schoonmaker. All was a non-factor due to injury and has transferred to Iowa and Schoonmaker is heading to the NFL. Due to All's injury, Michigan was forced to speed along the progression of freshman Colston Loveland. A player we said could make his way into the rotation by season's end, was Michigan's TE1 for a better part of the second half of the year. Loveland had at least 1 reception in each of Michigan's last six games and scored big-time touchdowns against Ohio State and Purdue.

Michigan will once again have one of the better TE duos in the country next season with the addition of transfer AJ Barner. The Indiana transfer is a do it all tight end that should have an immediate impact blocking in the run game, in the short passing game, and could become one of Michigan's better red zone threats.

Don't sleep on the depth behind these two guys either. Max Bredeson appears poised to take on an H-Back role, and possibly get some snaps at true full-back. They may have been jumped by Loveland, but Matthew Hibner and Marlin Klein have been with the program and can more than hold their own in rotations. Michigan's recruiting of tight ends doesn't sleep, and both freshmen Deakon Tonielli and Zack Marshall have gotten comparisons to Loveland. Could one of them have a breakout campaign similar to the new TE1?

I'm going safe here, it's Colston Loveland. I hyped him up a lot last offseason and it turns out I still fell short. Loveland is a wide receiver trapped in a tight end's body. His blocking improved significantly in the second half of the season and we have already seen what he can do as a receiver.

With another year under his belt and an offseason at the top of the depth chart, the sky is the limit for the impact freshman. A tight end has been second in receiving each of the last two seasons, and Loveland is already a bigger receiving threat than All or Schoonmaker. He can get open in the flat, down the seam, and even on deep throws out of the slow. Michigan receivers struggled with contested catches last season, while 3 of Loveland's 15 receptions were contested.

Sure, he is TE1, but we are talking about a player who could be Michigan's best short yardage, jump ball, and red zone receiver. Expectations are high for Loveland heading into 2023, and I wonder if once again they aren't high enough.

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