Levine Toilolo, the elite four-star tight end from La Mesa (Calif.) Helix, visited Stanford this past weekend for Junior Day, and after spending some time thinking after returning home, committed to the Cardinal on Monday...

La Mesa (Calif.) Helix tight end Levine Toilolo had already been to Stanford once, for a camp last spring, but he didn't get to spend much time soaking in the atmosphere on The Farm.

So this past weekend, Toilolo headed up to Palo Alto for Stanford's Junior Day. Getting to spend more time on campus, and more importantly, with the coaching staff, allowed Toilolo to get more comfortable with Stanford.

When he left Stanford on Sunday, he told the coaching staff he wanted some time to think but that he could be ready to make a decision.

On Monday, he called Jim Harbaugh to tell him his decision.

"I called Coach Harbaugh today and told him I was committing to Stanford," said Toilolo. "I just wanted to come home and talk with my parents and to pray about it. And God opened my eyes up more to Stanford."

Stanford was one of the first schools to offer Toilolo, doing so last September. When we spoke to him late last month, he said that the Cardinal were his leader. After his visit to Stanford's Junior Day, any remaining questions he had were answered."

"I was able to spend a lot of time talking with Coach Harbaugh and also with Coach (Tim) Drevno, the tight ends coach," said Toilolo. "I really felt comfortable with the coaches when I was there. The campus is really cool and I liked everything I saw."

So what was the biggest factor in Toilolo committing 11 months before Signing Day?

"I thought, there is no better situation for me to get the academics and the football like at Stanford, so I thought, why wait any more," said Toilolo. "I'm pretty excited and relieved to get my decision out of the way. Now I can focus on getting better, and working hard in school. My senior year, I won't have the stress about where I'm going."

Toilolo said he spent time talking academics with the staff at Stanford, and they laid out a plan for him.

"Coach Drevno told me what I needed to do with my classes, to take the SAT again, and when they'll get me the application to work on," said Toilolo. "I know it's a lot of work, but I'm ready to do it."

One of the top tight ends nationally, Toilolo is the second tight end to commit to the Cardinal, joining Zach Ertz, who committed in November.

"I talked with him this weekend and he's really cool. We talked about the whole process," said Toilolo. "I like how Stanford uses the tight end in the offense, and how they like to use two of them at a time."

Toilolo said he hit it off well with a handful of other visitors this past weekend, including linebacker Todd Golper and fellow San Diego native Tyler Gaffney.

"I hung out with Todd Golper, Tyler Gaffney and Jemari Roberts a lot and we all talked about recruiting and everything," said Toilolo. "I'm going to see some of them at UNLV this month."

Toilolo will be in Las Vegas in two weeks with several of the other recruits at the New Level/Scout Pass Camp.

With his commitment, Toilolo is the third known commit to the Cardinal in the class of 2009, joining Ertz and linebacker Shayne Skov.