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Jibril Raymo’s got money in the bank. The sophomore safety cashed in Saturday on his trademark: recovering a blocked punt for a touchdown. He patented the skill last year, as a true freshman, when he blocked a punt and returned it six yards for a touchdown against Washington.

Saturday, sophomore corner Matt Clark blocked San Diego State’s punt from its own 21 yard-line and Raymo recovered it in the Aztec end zone to put UCLA up 14-0 at the start of the second quarter.

“I just saw it and – green light – I fell on it and held on real tight,” Raymo said.

This season Raymo’s stock seemed to drop as sophomore Ben Emanuel and true freshman Jarrad Page stepped in at safety. Raymo got in on 13 snaps against Colorado, but knew going into San Diego State that the way to earn more time was to perform well on special teams.

“That’s what I’m hustling right now,” he said, “That’s what’s getting me my money.”

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Senior right tackle Mike Saffer, one of the team’s emotional leaders, sat out the game with a broken rib. He suffered the injury against Colorado but practiced all week.

“Yesterday he coughed and the rib broke,” UCLA head coach Bob Toledo said. Saffer will be out for three to five weeks.

He was replaced by redshirt freshman Ed Blanton who had never played in, much less started, a game for UCLA.

“I was more nervous yesterday when I found out,” Blanton said. “Mike pulled me aside and said not to worry about mistakes, just to play hard.”

That is pretty much what Blanton did as the offense often ran away from his side while the defense blitzed his direction, taking advantage of his naivete.

“That’s just good strategy. If I was the coach I’d do the same thing,” Blanton said.

•••

Six-foot-three free safety Matt Ware played at corner the entire first half to help Ricky Manning match up on San Diego State receivers Kassim Osgood, 6-5, and J.R. Tolver, 6-2.

Osgood, the nation’s third-leading receiver coming into the game, had 145 yards Saturday, almost 100 of which came in the second quarter, due to his ability to make plays and poor execution by the UCLA secondary. But Tolver, ranked No. 1 nationally, was held to a mere 30 yards. Prolific Aztec quarterback Adam Hall, who put up 500-yard passing games the past two weeks, threw for only 183 yards.

“I don’t know if it had anything to do with me and my size. You just do what you’re supposed to do,” said the humble Ware, who had four solo and three assisted tackles as well as a tackle for a loss of 11 yards.

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