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Editor’s Note: We’re going to be releasing a series of profiles on key Villanova Wildcats football recruiting targets over the next 1-2 weeks.
Name: Anthony Toro
Position: OLB
Height/Weight: 6’3” 230 lbs.
Hometown/HS: Hyattsville, Md. | DeMatha Catholic
Offers: New Mexico Lobos, Old Dominion Monarchs, Robert Morris, Monmouth, Elon, New Hampshire, Villanova, East Tennessee State
Highlights:
His Game: Toro has great size for both a linebacker and tight end (he plays the latter in high school as well) at 6’3”, with a frame that will allow him to fill out even more. One of the things that stands out the most from watching Toro is his quickness and speed.
Toro is extremely quick off the edge, with the ability to blow by offensive lineman. As a result, he is an extremely effective blitzer, but hits the point of attack well on running plays well. He can shed blocks, with the strength to just push lineman out of the way. He wraps and finishes his tackles extremely well.
The Hyattsville native was 1st Team All-WCAC - a very competitive league at the high school level that produces loads of Division I talent.
His Fit: Toro’s fit looks like he’d play on the outside of Villanova’s three-linebacker setup. His size and speed is a huge asset both in dealing with offensive tackles and covering tight ends. Villanova places a lot of importance on the linebackers to make plays, and Toro demonstrates the ability to do that both rushing the passer and disrupting run plays to the outside.
He looks like a potential replication of Austin Calitro - the recent NFL draft pick was a jack-of-all-trades for Villanova’s #1 defense and played both as an OLB and as a pseudo-DE in obvious passing situations. Calitro was the leader of the defense with his passionate play - a trait easily apparent in Toro as well.
The aggressiveness of his play and the passion he plays with is a big plus to a Villanova defense that has thrived on big plays and the ensuing swagger over the past few years. He comes in at a mature size and as a polished player with good fundamentals. Whatever program he chooses looks like they could be grabbing an early impact player - hopefully it’s Villanova.