ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan football didn’t exactly light the field up against USC in Week 4 through the air. In part, that was due to having a new starting quarterback, Alex Orji, as well as the focus being on the ground game. But the Wolverines were also missing one important piece: tight end Colston Loveland.
Widely thought of as the best tight end in college football, Loveland is a threat to catch the ball anywhere on the field on any given play. He is easily the Wolverines’ best downfield threat. With Loveland out, that threat was mostly neutralized this week.
There was some drama leading up to the game. Though Loveland injured his shoulder against Arkansas State, but there had been a great deal of positive hype that he could be ready to go. However, two hours before the game against the Trojans, Loveland was ruled out.
On Monday, head coach Sherrone Moore said it’s too soon to know whether he’ll be able to play against Minnesota, but noted that he was close to being able to go last week against USC.
“Yeah, we’ll see. Doing better. Doing a lot better,” Moore said. “Was close to playing last Saturday but doctors felt that it would be in his best interest that he not. So we’re in a positive patch right now, so we’ll see.”
Despite missing last week, through four games, Loveland still has triple the number of yards as the next closest receiver, having reeled in 19 catches for 187 yards in three games. Semaj Morgan is the next closest, with 12 catches for 62 yards.
The passing game didn’t look good last week: Orji completed 7-of-12 passes for 32 yards. However, not having the sole threat in the middle of the field certainly hampered his and the offense’s limited ability to get the ball downfield through the air.