Excitement Building for Raymo

Bruin safety Jibril Raymo made like Angel closer Troy Percival, thrusting his arm to the sky in jubilation after UCLA blocked a punt against California four weeks ago.

But Raymo dislocated his shoulder in the process, and his teammates came up with another comparison.

“They called me ‘Gramatica,’ ” he said.

Any link to Bill Gramatica, the Arizona Cardinal kicker who injured a knee last season celebrating a field goal, would make most guys sheepish. But Raymo is one of the most outgoing and upbeat Bruins. Even though he missed three games because of the injury, he never became depressed.

“It happened, I learned from it, so I can’t be too hard on myself,” he said. “I actually hurt it earlier in the game, and I got so pumped when we blocked the punt that it came out of the socket.”

It was difficult for him to watch road games against Washington and Arizona from home.

“My heart was racing and I was jumping out of my seat,” he said. “I was going crazy watching my team play and not being able to help.”

Raymo, a sophomore, will return against USC on Nov. 23. He is a valuable special-teams performer as well as the first safety off the bench.

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Reports that the career of former Bruin running back DeShaun Foster might be in jeopardy because of complications from knee surgery weighs heavily on the mind of Kelly Skipper, UCLA’s offensive coordinator and running backs coach.

Foster, a Carolina Panther rookie, had surgery to remove torn cartilage from his left knee a week ago in Birmingham, Ala., and has missed the entire season. He initially suffered the injury in an exhibition game. He tried to come back three weeks ago but encountered more problems.

Skipper was Foster’s position coach at UCLA and Skipper’s father, Jim, is a Panther assistant.

“It’s too bad. He had really worked hard and was looking forward to a good season,” Skipper said. “It was a freak injury.”

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Coach Bob Toledo and coordinators Phil Snow and Skipper were the only coaches at practice because the others are on the road recruiting. That left Toledo to become more vocal than usual.

“These guys are anxious to go home and I wanted to make sure we had a good practice,” he said. “It’s the scout-team guys, the guys who aren’t getting to play in games. They are the hardest to motivate.”

The Bruins will not practice until Monday.

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UCLA gave injured receiver Ryan Smith permission to be examined by Dr. Richard Ferkel, a Van Nuys-based foot and ankle specialist.... Senior tackle Bryce Bohlander has been selected to the Academic All-District 8 team.