Much is still to be determined about this year's Cal Lutheran football team, but one thing is clear: Whatever the team's offense becomes, it will be built on the foundation of its running backs.

In Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage, the team's dress rehearsal for next week's season opener with Pacific Lutheran, backs Jose Rojas, Alex Gomez and Antoine Adams furthered the case — made primarily by Louis Montano in the earlier scrimmage with Ventura College — that the running game is in good hands.

"That's our strength," said offensive coordinator Clay Richardson. "We have to ride our studs.

"Today's Jose's first day back, really" — Rojas has been hampered by a hamstring injury — "and he's already there. And Alex Gomez blew out a knee last year and then he tweaked it again. He really needed that today."

Rojas and Montano, both seniors, will lead the running back corps — assuming Montano's foot injury, suffered early in Saturday's controlled scrimmage, isn't serious. He was scheduled for precautionary X-rays Saturday afternoon.

"They're sort of a different package," said head coach Ben McEnroe. "Louis has got a lot of shake; he's real shifty. Jose's a brute. You saw that today. He was just running through people.

"And then we've got the two fullbacks" — Peter Vermillion and Jesse Slamen — "that are both big, physical kids that like to get in there and shorten people's necks."

The backs understand they will be asked to lead the way, particularly in the early going.

"We have some experience," said Rojas, a returning all-conference selection, "so we feel like we can bring that to the team. We had a good rushing season last year, and we feel like if you have a good running game, you can control the game."

Said McEnroe, "When you're breaking in a new quarterback, you're going to rely on your defense, being sound in the kicking game, and being able to run the football. If you can do those things, not only can you bring along a quarterback, you can win a lot of football games."

Five quarterbacks saw action Saturday, but the front-runners to start appear to be sophomore Jericho Toilolo and senior Dustin Willingham. McEnroe said the staff will settle on a starter by Monday.

Whoever gets the nod will lead a group that still has much to prove. In two scrimmages, the offense has yet to mount a touchdown drive; its only touchdown Saturday was during a goal-line series, when Toilolo connected with Jesse Matlock on a 10-yard scoring pass. The only other touchdown was by the defense, a 27-yard fumble return by Roland Jenkins.

"We have a lot of new guys on our offensive line, and our offensive line is extremely important," said Rojas. "If they can get off the ball, we can definitely get off the ball. It's taking these guys a little bit longer to get it down, but they're definitely getting better. We see improvement every day. But by next Saturday, we've got to take a huge step, a much bigger step than we've taken."

Still, McEnroe was pleased with the steps forward displayed in the scrimmage.

"You saw fewer busts in assignments, better execution," he said, assessing the offense. " We ran the ball better than we did last week, and we protected the quarterback better than we did last week. I thought our quarterbacks put us into some good plays.

"On defense, it was kind of similar to what we did last week. We had that bend-but-don't-break mentality. They made plays when they had to, and I think that might be the trademark of this defense."