How Colston Loveland grew from branding calves into a refuse-to-lose tight end the Chicago Bears needed

LAKE FOREST, Ill. - Old habits die hard for Colston Loveland.

Two days before the 2025 NFL Draft, the Michigan tight end was back in his native home of Gooding, Idaho, doing the work that shaped who he’s become today.

Forget the surgery he had on his AC joint this offseason. Nothing was going to keep him from working with the calves at his aunt and uncle's house.

"When I was home two days before draft, we branded some calves," Loveland said. "I didn't get too crazy with it."

Gooding is a town of 3,802. There are no towering skyscrapers. The closest airport is the Magic Valley Regional Airport in Twin Falls, which only has two daily flights to Salt Lake City. Calling a move from Gooding to Chicago a "culture shock" would be exponentially downplaying what a culture shock is in this case.

Still, that town produced Loveland, the tenth overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft, whom the Chicago Bears hand-picked to run a crucial piece of first-year head coach Ben Johnson’s offense.

Part of what made Loveland into that top-10 pick is an appreciation for hard work. That hard work cultivated a mentality that resonated with one of the biggest college football programs in the sport and, later, one of the first franchises in NFL history.

"He just doesn't like to lose," Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore said. "Refuses to lose in everything. Whether it's a conversation about Jordan vs. LeBron, or anything football."

‘The best you can do better than everyone else’

Branding calves isn’t easy. It takes two people, even for a first-round pick.

"It's two people. That's it," Loveland said. "I'm holding the head, so I'll flank it. I'll be on the head and someone's on the legs." 

From there, multiple things need to happen. The calf needs to be branded, vaccinated and then have its ear lipped to mark that all the necessary work has been done. Time to move on to the next calf.

When the branding was done, the day was far from done for Loveland. 

After that, he had football practice at Gooding High School where he played wide receiver before he bulked up into a traditional tight end.

"Don't tell anyone, (but) we’d normally go to miss school to do that. It was nice," Loveland said. "I'd go to practice right after. But yeah, stuff like that was always fun."

For Loveland, branding was time he got to spend with his family and friends as he got work done. 

However, the work wasn’t always so easy.

"We'd always lay fence down," Loveland said. "You lay it down in the winter. But most of the time it breaks anyway, so you got to put the fence back up. If you ever play with some barbed wire, it's tough. It'd rip me up for sure."

There are a lot of lessons built into the kind of physical work that Loveland grew to enjoy and love. He said a lot of that work has lessons that correlate to football. 

But, the one that stands out the most is the one that correlated the most was simple.

"Just doing the best you can do better than everyone else around you," Loveland said.

Loveland parlayed that lesson into being a 4-star tight end recruit in Idaho. He was a hard-working player. He caught the eye of an old school coach who has an affinity for hard-working players.

It didn’t take long for then-Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines to hop on the Loveland bandwagon.

Catching the eye of a Wolverine

Jim Harbaugh is known for his unconventional recruiting methods. He once had a sleepover at top kicker recruit Quinn Nordin’s home in 2016.

Yes, Nordin committed to and enrolled at Michigan under Harbaugh.

Yes, Harbaugh spent the night in Gooding. The town, Loveland said, was buzzing. Everyone knew he was coming. Michigan’s head coach still threw him a curveball.

"He came in at night, stayed the night at my grandparents' place and then we were talking, he's like,’what time are we working out tomorrow?’" Loveland said. "I was like, ‘are you working out tomorrow?’ He's like, ‘yeah.’ I think we went in there at 7:30. He was in his khakis, in his shoes, doing squats with me."

That resonated enough with Loveland. He committed to Michigan, and the Wolverines landed a player they scouted as a guy who could everything on the football field.

"He played everything on the field for his high school in Idaho," Moore said. "Not many people go to Idaho to go recruit in general, but we try to dig and find. We called him ‘mining for gold,’ right? Try to find the best players you can everywhere you can."

Of course, the fact Loveland participated in rodeos stood out. But Michigan saw all the intangibles mixing with the football film. Moore said they saw a great student leader, a captain, a super athlete and, overall, a great fit for Michigan.

That’s what Moore saw in 2022. In 2025, the scouting report remains the same.

"He's going to be relentless in his work ethic and he's going to be tough, he's going to be physical," Loveland said. "He's going to be everything that the Bears organization really wants."

Arriving on the biggest stage

It didn’t take long for Loveland to make an impact in Ann Arbor. He had two receptions in his first game as a true freshman against Colorado State.

He picked the perfect time to catch his first-career touchdown. That came on the road against Ohio State in Week 12 in The Game, one of the biggest rivalries in college football.

Not only did Loveland catch the touchdown in a hostile environment, but it was a massive play on a 45-yard touchdown pass from J.J. McCarthy with Michigan trailing 20-17.

Loveland, with that Gooding nature at hand, turned to the Ohio State crowd and shushed the Horseshoe as the Wolverines took a 24-20 lead.

"He left the defender in the dust, but was shushing the crowd right after," Moore said. "I thought that was an epic moment for a freshman to catch that and not even blink, shush the crowd and celebrate with his teammates."

Loveland remembers that moment well, too. It was the moment he truly arrived.

"I feel like that was kind of where I started just elevating my game," Loveland said.

From there, he was a first-team All-Big Ten tight end. After that, he won a national championship. Michigan, even though Loveland didn’t play against Ohio State in 2024 with his AC joint injury, did not lose to Ohio State when Loveland was on the roster.

Once he arrived, he kept rising.

That led him to Thursday, where the Bears made him the first-ever draft pick in Ben Johnson’s head coaching career.

"I'm excited to go win games," Loveland said.

BearsNFLNFL DraftSports