While many discuss Michigan football and its run game and offensive line, many forget that the Wolverines have a huge strength at tight end. Colston Loveland is projected to be the best tight end in the country with Brock Bowers now gone from Georgia, and the maize and blue have perpetually recruited well at the position behind him.
On Sunday, Michigan tight ends coach Steve Casula met with the media for the first time since spring ball. Casula discussed not only the room, but the state of the offense, the quarterback competition, what it was like previously being an analyst for the Wolverines before returning as a position coach, and much more.
Here is everything he had to say.
The offense vs. the ‘positionless defense’
Yeah, it’s something that definitely puts us in the mode as an offense of being alert. Like, jersey numbers matter. Who’s standing where matters relative to formation, whether they’re standing over a tight end or running back, standing up at receiver, what type of bodies are standing over whom. And then when you get into the more exotic personnel groupings on third down, yeah, it definitely puts us to the test. But it’s great, it gets us ready for our schedule when people play multiple defensive packages and you got to know, like, ‘Hey, in this situation, this guy’s playing corner, well, as soon as they go nickel defense, he plays nickel now,’ and what does that mean to us?
Conversely, hey, they’ve got five D-linemen or three D-linemen and two edges in the game, so we’re really fortunate to get to go against that stuff every day, and it’s a great tool for us at the one, two, and 300 level, be able to help our guys with details relative to plays. Like, hey, here’s some indicators about what the coverage could be or what it may be, where pressure’s coming from. But, yeah, they got a lot going on, for sure, but it’s only made us better, and it’s something that we’re certainly appreciative to deal with every day and not just getting ready for an upcoming opponent.
Who identifies the different positions in real time?
I think it all depends on what we’re doing, like what kind of segment or situation we’re in, but it’s something that our entire offense is definitely thoughtful about.
What’s different at Michigan now compared to 2019 when he first arrived?
I think I touched on this in the spring. I think it’s really just become a continuation and has just gotten tighter and better and tighter and better. But we’re super proud of the way we practice. We got a group of young people that are super serious about football and super serious about the team, and I think it’s just been a continuation and a growth of it.
But how we practice, we take great pride in the way we practice, how we practice. When it’s time to go fast and physical, we do it. When it’s time to be respectful of the tempo and protect your teammates and all that stuff, we do it, and we don’t waste a lot of time when we’re out there. We get a lot accomplished, super organized by Coach Moore and the coordinators. There’s an intent with every situation and every drill we do, and we may be out there for a long time on certain days, but we’re getting stuff done, so not a lot of milling around.
Who’s the third tight end?
Fall camp’s always a great opportunity here for guys to really develop, grow, make a name for themselves. We have an old saying here — this is a meritocracy. You shall be known upon your talents and efforts, and so there’s an ample opportunity for that. I think two guys that have really had outstanding fall camps and have grown and developed, and it’s not just fall camp, but it’s the off-season cycle as well.
Zack Marshall and Jalen Hoffman have really done well, and they’ve turned heads, and when called upon, they’ve made the most of their opportunities, and they’ve really had good camps.
What he remembers about Marlin Klein’s recruitment
I think Marlin committed sometime during the fall of 2020, if my memory serves me correct. So Coach Moore was actually the tight ends coach that (Marlin) committed to, and I remember the first time I watched him, I was just a. taken aback by, like, the mountains, and the background where he went to school, and then, b. I had never seen somebody at that age, at that size, run the way he did.
He displayed early in his high school career real deal, like, high-end physical traits. I remember there was a clip on either his junior or senior highlight film where he’s running down someone that had made an interception, and, like, you’re like, whoa. Like, it wasn’t, he didn’t have the ball. It wasn’t a, like, he ran someone down, and chased him, and caught him on a pursuit play, and it was a wow moment watching the guy run. You could tell, high-end physical traits, for sure.
What he’s seen from the quarterbacks
They’re playing good. I think it speaks to Coach Campbell in the way that he teaches our system, and how squared up and airtight those guys operate. They see the game, and talk about the game like Coach Campbell does. So I think it starts with that. So sometimes when you’re super focused and ingrained on your position you’re coaching, and their execution of an alignment and assignment, how a play goes for them, there’s moments where if you closed your eyes and somebody told you the result of the play, it’s just one of the quarterbacks. And I think that starts with him, but also his players and their willingness to embody and soak up the information provided.
When we were getting ready for the spring game, you have the opportunities to be around players, and hear them, you know, more intimately, and hear them talk when we split into two teams, and hearing our quarterbacks talk to other players about reviewing a pass player, the installation of a pass play, it’s like listening to a coach. So they’re all performing at a high level, and our offense is able to function and do what we do, regardless of who’s been in, but playing at a high level, for sure.
On him and Kirk Campbell both being analysts at Michigan
I would say that we take a great point of pride in the fact that that was kind of our background here, and when I was leaving toward the end of the 2021 season to go to the University of Massachusetts, got to meet with, or meet and deal with Coach Campbell some, and have remained connected. It’s one of those things — we’ve always kind of known of each other, but had never directly worked with one another. I would tell you, a. we take a great point of pride of, like, how our track here began, and what the beginnings were. I think it speaks to starting with Coach Harbaugh, and now continued by Coach Moore, their investment in people, and the quality of staff we have.
I think you look at what analysts from here have gone on to do, whether it’s at Michigan or elsewhere, I think it’s a pretty exciting and attractive place to do the job, and we’ve got great ones right now. We’re really, really super, super fortunate. Start with Josh Sinagoga. I knew Josh while he was at Youngstown, recruiting Detroit, the east side of the state. So I’ve gotten to know Josh. He’s outstanding. He’s really good. Nick Gilbert is another one who is kind of still connected in that whole tree with Kyle DeVan, who was here in 2021, and Gilby’s great. Jack Clark is a younger analyst here who started his career in recruiting as a student. Jack’s as sharp as sharp could be, and we’ve got, obviously, the two OGs, Coach Ingles and Coach Jackson. They’ve forgotten more football than I know, so they’re awesome. They’ve got great perspective. They assist each and every one of us on each and every day from A to Z, and then our two graduate assistants are outstanding as well, Nick Rossiello and Andrew Goodrich.
It’s a big group that Coach Campbell manages really, really good, and we’re fortunate to have great people here in that kind of support role.
Could Colston Loveland lead Michigan in receiving in 2024?
I wouldn’t be surprised. I think you look at Coach Campbell’s background and track record, in 2021, I think their tight end had 70. They had a tight end with over 70 receptions. He’s been exposed to getting the tight end of the ball. (Loveland) is able to do a lot of different things, both in the run and pass game. And we have a saying in the tight end room, the ball finds talent, technique, and energy, and Cole’s got all three. So, yeah, I mean, I think that could certainly happen. Cole’s been exceptional, is exceptional, desires to get better, but I think if you look at K.C.’s track record, he’s more than willing to keep throwing the ball through a tight end, for sure.
On spreading the ball around
I think there’s a lot of layers to that. Every week, every day base stuff in the offense that where you’ve got a pretty good sense of where the ball’s going to go or who it’s designed for. I think that’s something that will always be a big portion of who we are.
When it comes to getting ready for a game, so much of what we do, throwing and running the ball, it may be easy to us, difficult for a defense, the way we formation and motion plays. So, always being thoughtful about making sure your best players are a part of touching the football. And then, people have asked that question or we’ve talked about that topic. We’ve got a lot of other really good players, too, and Cole deserves recognition and all those things. But our wide receiver position and additional players at tight end and guys out of the backfield are really darn good, too. Semaj Morgan and Tyler Morris are really good football players, too. And but that’s something that you have to — you understand people are certainly going to key on where’s No. 18, for sure. But that’s something we’re aware of and that we’ve, you know, all of us at some point in our career have dealt with. But it’s certainly something we’re ready to take on and control week to week.
Personnel groupings and heavy sets
In terms of whether we’re in 12 or 11? Well, we’re always going to play with tight ends here. And there’s going to be certain weeks where it’s a lot of 12 and 13 and you get into the flow of the game. And you got to do what you got to do to win the game. But we play with a lot of 11 personnel and two. And if we need to be in 10 personnel to go and win a game, then it gives us the best chance to a. effectively move the ball and score points but b. run the football, c. throw the football. We’re going to deploy our personnel as necessary. And then a lot of it is dictated by how the defense handles different personnels as well. So that’s kind of like a big living, breathing week-to-week organism. But we’ve got really good players at both positions. We’ve got really good players in the tailback room as well where we feel like we can be super multiple and do what we need to do.
What does opening up the offense look like?
I wasn’t here the last two years. Obviously I watched the games and cheered from afar. But I think our kids have really taken on the onus of an understanding, high-level detail of both the run and pass game, that what we’re able to look like is all about what they’re able to execute. And not every team or every roster is the exact same. So I don’t have perspective of what the day-to-day has looked like in the previous two years. But I know that we’re very functional throwing the football, short, intermediate, long. I also know that we’re really functional running the football inside, outside, you know, on the perimeter.
So, the kids may feel that. It’s just to me, it’s our system, it’s our offense. And K.C. has done a great job in conjunction with Grant in building our run game and pass game and kind of making it one big group-together system. So it’s been fun. Yeah, it’s going good.
Is Loveland faster this year?
Cole has moved around great. And I don’t know if he went and ran a 40-yard dash or a 100-meter-yard dash, what the time would be. But when the ball snapped, he’s got such, like, great functional movement skills. He wastes no movement. And he is so thoughtful about his plan of attack in both the run and pass game that he just does things like when you have a plan before the ball snapped and you have an understanding, high-level understanding of football and the system, you’re able to do things a little bit faster. But, yeah, I mean, he’s playing faster than what I was, you know, exposed to in the spring. He’s playing really well. And, you know, that starts with him and starts with just kind of who we are as an offense. But, yeah, he’s playing fast right now. So I don’t know that he would go and be – I don’t know how fast he is, you know, in terms of a measurement. But when the ball snapped, he damn sure looks fast. So he’s playing really fast, playing really well.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Everything Steve Casula said at his Sunday Michigan football press conference
