Once you’ve followed the NFL long enough, you learn that every player who reaches the league has at least one high school story that made them a legend. Caleb Williams threw a Hail Mary to win the state championship. Brian Urlacher had 12 TD receptions and six TD returns on defense in the same season. There are so many great stories. Yet Colston Loveland might have one of the best. His former head coach, Cameron Anderson, shared this week on the CHGO Bears podcast.
It came during his junior year in 2020. Gooding High School was battling Kimberly for the conference championship. In a back-and-forth thriller, the two teams traded punches to a 28-28 tie, leading to overtime. Kimberly then scored a touchdown on their opening possession. Gooding needed a TD. Conventional wisdom dictated they get the ball to Loveland, who’d caught 69 passes for 816 yards and six touchdowns. However, Anderson was surprised when his young star came to him with a different idea.
That kind of mentality followed Colston Loveland to college.
He easily could’ve gone somewhere that gave him a chance to produce big-time stats. However, he bought into the vision of head coach Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, which emphasized team-oriented play. That meant unselfish football. Colston Loveland bought in immediately. Never was his selflessness more on display than during their national championship run in 2023. After going for 88 yards in a big win over Ohio State, he caught just five passes for 36 yards in the next two games. It didn’t matter. His help with blocking paved the way for a strong ground attack that helped control the clock and grind out two big wins over Iowa and Alabama.
Then, when his number was called in the national championship, he led the team with 64 yards on three catches, including a back-breaking 41-yarder in the 4th quarter that set up the clinching touchdown. It is no wonder the Bears fell in love with him so much. He is the precise archetype they covet.
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