Cal lands 2026 commitment from Centennial LB Jonathan McKinley
Recruiting never stops.
The California Golden Bears are back on the recruiting trail, and are getting a head start on 2026. They landed an important commitment at inside linebacker in Jonathan McKinley.
McKinley held offers from Utah, Arizona State, Arizona, Boise State and SMU. McKinley is near a top 500 247Sports Composite ranking, ranking as the 38th best linebacker and 57th best California prospect.
You can check out his Hudl tape here. According to our recruiting analyst SGBear, his athleticism and ability to slip tackles stands out. You can see it in his quick lateral movement to juke blockers. He played a lot of edge in high school but it seems as if inside linebacker will be his position in college. McKinely reportedly totalled 57 tackles, a sack, 21 QB hurries, 1 forced fumble and 1 pass defended
McKinley cited academics as a critical component of his early commitment. More from Matt Moreno of Cal Rivals.
“I did visit them last season for their OSU game, and I really did like how they ran their defense. It’s built for the linebacker position. I was talking with Coach Bruno and Coach Sirmon. They really saw me fitting in their scheme really well. I took this visit up there this weekend and then I realized like how well the academic program was. Because like I'm not someone who just loves football, so I like academics and learning what I can do past my football career.
“Financial literacy is what I want to do, and I was talking with one of the professors, and I realized that this is probably one of the top schools where I can get a great education and play great football.”
Welcome to Cal Jonathan! Go Bears!
His love of education may hold him closer than most, but in today’s environment I’d still put quotes around “Committed”.
Intelligent and talented. Cal's a great place to develop on both fronts.