Senior defensive back on California's 2025 roster.
6′1″ · 185 lb · Charlotte, NC
Recruiting
S recruit
No. 26 nationally · Joined California
No college snaps yet.
His career numbers, season by seasonThe story
4 defensive back on California's 2025 roster.
Ja'ir Smith
This is his second year in the same secondary at California. The receipt: 3 tackles against Texas Southern — Week 2, 2025.
Low coverage — composed from the verified record.
His career
Career arc
Season context · Team result + system
2 seasons under Justin Wilcox — 13-13 over that span.
Where this defender ranks vs the field
Box-score production percentiles vs the position cohort
Concern: tackles for loss (7th percentile).
Percentiles are versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season, based on box-score production. There are no play-by-play efficiency bars here: CFBD's play-value model credits offensive players only, so no defensive EPA exists to rank.
Splits · Per-game
2025 season · 8 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home5g | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Road3g | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-75g | 1.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| Weeks 8+3g | 1.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Tosh Lupoi
Scheme reads (pass share, tempo, sack rate) need at least 3 team games — 2 games in so far.
Player standing · 2025
On the two-deep and pushing for snaps.
| Season | Team | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | California | 13 | 9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1 | -- | -- |
| 2024 | California | 12 | 8 | 1.0 | 1.0 | -- | 1 | -- |
| Career | 25 | 17 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 1 | 1 | -- |
SIGNATURE GAME · Week 14 · 2025
W 38–35
vs SMU
2 TOT · 1 SOLO
Edged out SMU at home in a shootout.
With J. Sagapolutele — 330 yds · 4 TD · 0 INT · QBR 92.9 · K. Raphael — 111 rush yds (33 car) · 1 TD
Game log · Week-by-week
2025 season · 8 games
| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 2 | W 35-3vs Texas Southern | 3 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 3 tackles |
| Wk 3 | W 27-14vs Minnesota | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | W 28-24@ Boston College | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 6 | L 21-45vs Duke | 2 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 8 | W 21-18vs North Carolina | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | L 34-42@ Virginia Tech | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 14 | W 38-35vs SMU | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Bowl | L 31-35@ Hawai'i | 2 | 2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 13 | 9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 |
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
13 tackles. 1 passes defended. 0 interceptions. 0 TFL.
Counts only, never a rate — splash-event sample sizes this small (interceptions, pass breakups, TFL) are noise as a rate and signal only as a tally.
2026 Outlook
California
2026 Depth chart
Projected starter
Defensive back · California
Returning around him
2026 Award watch
No preseason watch lists yet (most drop June 15 – July 15)
California · Last season: 7-6 · Talent rank #33 · 2026 recruiting class #56