UCLA WR commit Jonah Smith to miss senior year with injury
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — When Santa Margarita Catholic ran out on the football field Saturday, one prominent player was notably absent. By the end of the day, the status of Jonah Smith was confirmed.
The 2026 UCLA commit will miss all of his upcoming senior season with a knee injury, new Santa Margarita head coach Carson Palmer told Orange County Register reporter Dan Albano.
At the start of the Battle at the Beach tournament, Bruin Blitz was informed that Smith suffered an undisclosed setback when he wasn’t seen warming up with rest of the receivers. Last year, he missed all but the season finale with a broken tibia.
Smith, the first commit in UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster’s recruiting class, was a promising talent on the rise last year. More than 15 months ago, he took MVP honors among all receivers at the Southern California stop in the 2024 Rivals Camp Series. At the time, he was rated a four-star talent and ranked 140th overall nationally by Rivals.
Smith’s first recovery
It was at the same Battle at the Beach tournament last year when Smith showed up on crutches to support his teammates.
Last year, the sound route runner was sidelined for eight weeks before he was cleared to run and another month before he resumed football activities.
It remains unclear how long Smith’s latest road to recovery will be.
The Bruins, though, remained loyal to Smith’s commitment after the first injury. He was on campus for multiple unofficial visits this spring prior to his official in May. It was an effort to soak in as much of new offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri’s scheme at spring camp.
Meanwhile, Smith told Bruin Blitz that he was beginning to regain his full confidence in his movements in March.
”I didn’t put what I wanted to on tape, what’s really me,” Smith said at the Rivals camp in March.
Now, the timetable resets, and it remains to be seen where in the process Smith will be when he arrives in Westwood next year.
