Redshirt freshman Levine Toilolo will miss the remainder of the Cardinal’s season after sustaining a torn ACL injury during Saturday’s game against Sacramento State. The game marked Toilolo’s first action for Stanford, as well as his last play on an NCAA football field until 2011. You can read more about the injury here, courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Besides being disappointing for Toilolo, the season-ending injury should have a noticeable impact on the Stanford offense. Though we have little way of knowing how much Toilolo could have contributed this season, we have a few solid hints. For one, he was a highly touted recruit out of high school. Scout (a partner of the Yard Barker network) slotted him in as the #6 tight end in the country in 2009, and Rivals had him at #4 in the nation. Both services judged him as a 4-star recruit at both tight end and at defensive end. Ironically, the only other team that Toilolo considered playing for after committing to Stanford was UCLA, the Card’s opponent this week.

Toilolo is a 6’8″ tight end with soft hands, and no team can overlook the value of that kind of asset. Even Andrew Luck needs to check down to a big target occasionally, and Toilolo had a chance to score a boatload of touchdowns in the Card’s pro-style attack. On a much less scientific but more interesting level, he’s a nice receiving option in EA Sports’s NCAA Football 11. Granted, that means virtually nothing and is based upon the intuitions of a bunch of computer nerds in Silicon Valley, but it’s worth noting.

We wish Levine the best of luck in his recovery and training for his sophomore season next year.

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