Caruthers Slowed by a Bad Break : Football: USC linebacker will miss first two games of the season after injuring foot in preseason practice.

The timing of it all is almost enough to make Gerald Caruthers crack a smile. But the pain in his left foot stops him every time.

The upcoming season was his for the taking. The 6-foot-3, 235-pound senior linebacker entered USC’s preseason camp tied for No. 1 on the depth chart after starting five games at the position in 1993.

But while high-stepping through conditioning drills one week before the start of preseason practice, Caruthers suffered a broken left foot, keeping him out of action until the Trojans’ Sept. 24 game against Baylor.

“It’s definitely bad timing,” said Caruthers, who graduated from Saugus High.

The injury doesn’t have Caruthers worried, though, and why should it? His life has featured enough danger and excitement to put a Tom Clancy novel to shame.

In 1978, he and his family moved from their native Oklahoma to Israel. When they returned to the United States almost eight years later, the one link he had with American culture was sports, particularly football.

“I always wanted to come back and play football,” he said. “It was one of the reasons I wanted to come home.”

Life in Oklahoma was much different than the volatile climate of the Middle East, where terrorists and violence were just another fact of life.

The Caruthers family lived on a “moshav,” a private farming community in the Negev Desert just 12 miles from the Egyptian border.

“I did a lot of work with my dad, spraying and picking and planting,” Caruthers said. “My father worked hard, worked a lot, like any farmer does.”

But few American farmers worked in similar circumstances.

A decade after the Six-Day War with Egypt in 1967, guards with automatic rifles slung over their shoulders stood watch as Caruthers and other children attended school.

“There were always terrorists,” Caruthers said. “It was like a constant threat. It was almost a day-to-day thing. We’d go to school and there would be an armed guard all the time.

“And the army would check out the school in the morning to make sure there were no bombs. I guess you got used to it.”

Israel requires all citizens to serve at least three years in its armed forces. The process begins when children turn 14, with weapons training. The first year of service starts by their 18th birthday.

Caruthers never got the chance to serve. After tomato prices dropped dramatically in two consecutive years, the family no longer could support itself and returned to the United States.

Israel, though, still remains close to Caruthers’ heart.

“It’s not America--let’s face it,” he said. “It makes me appreciate the things that I have now, the freedoms people have, the good life.

“I’d like to go back there. I grew up there and have a lot of love for the country, like if you grew up in America you’ll love America because it’s your country.”

And in America, they played football. Caruthers spent his freshman and sophomore years at a high school in Oklahoma, where he ran cross-country and track, but didn’t play football.

“I was kind of a rail,” he said.

After his sophomore year, his family moved to the San Fernando Valley. He played two years at Saugus High and was named All-Golden League in 1989. But playing for losing teams resulted in little notice.

He received scholarship offers from Cal State Northridge and Cal State Fullerton, but chose instead to attend Pasadena City College.

Caruthers blossomed at Pasadena. As a sophomore in 1991, he was named a J.C. All-American by Blue Chip magazine and first-team All-State Region IV by the J.C. Athletic Bureau.

USC offered him a scholarship following that breakthrough season.

“I was around a lot of good players,” he said. “I was in the weight room a lot because in high school I really didn’t work out that much, and I had good coaches.”

As a junior transfer last season, Caruthers started five mid-season games and had 22 tackles.

“He works extremely hard and he came back in great shape,” USC defensive coordinator Don Lindsey said. “He’s really well-conditioned. I hate not having him for the first two ball games.

“When he comes back, we expect him to step right on in behind Brian Williams.”

The prospect of having to catch up to Williams for that starting position rankles Caruthers, but he has little choice.

“I was really looking forward to this year,” he said. “I was that much more confident, I had experience. It’s a bummer that this happened, but I’m trying to have a positive attitude and in a few weeks we’ll work from there.”