GOODING, Idaho – Out of the 257 draft hopefuls this weekend, there is only one native to Idaho: Colston Loveland.
The 6’6 Michigan Wolverine tight end is a Gooding product, blossoming into the top Idaho prospect in his high school draft class, and winning the 2021 Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year.
We spoke with his former high school head coach Cameron Anderson about Loveland’s meteoric rise from high school through college to now the pros.
“I’ve been asked a lot the past couple of weeks about what it was like to coach that kid, how proud of you that you coached that kid and stuff like that,” Anderson said. “I don’t see it that way, because in little Gooding, Idaho, what were we gonna do with that kid. We didn’t have the resources, the tools, we maximized everything we could with him. What he has achieved, he did it, that was him.”
Loveland was stellar at Michigan, breaking the single-season tight end reception record and helping the Wolverines win the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship, Michigan’s first national title since 1997.
“When he caught that massive pass in the national championship game in the fourth quarter, the reporter said, ‘the man from Idaho’,” Anderson said. “He is the perfect reflection of what someone from Idaho would want to be represented and to go somewhere else. So, I think there’s where the pride comes from, he did it on his own sweat from his own brow. He sacrificed, he committed. I just can’t say enough about just proud that he was able to do those things.”
The 2025 NFL Draft begins tomorrow night at 5:00 p.m. here on 4 News Now.
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