Ben McEnroe isn't looking to remake the face of Cal Lutheran football so much as he wants to a little nip-and-tuck work here and there.

Of course, as young as that face of will be this season, the cosmetic-surgery metaphor has its limitations.

The projected starting lineups for McEnroe's CLU coaching debut — Saturday's 1 p.m. season opener with Pacific Lutheran at Mount Clef Stadium — features a rather neat mathematical progression: four freshmen, five sophomores, six juniors and seven seniors.

On the other hand, that also means experience is in rather short supply. But then, McEnroe and his staff are making sure the emphasis is on performance rather than incumbency, reflecting their belief in intrasquad competition.

"Philosophically, I grew up as a coach working with and for coach (Scott) Squires," says McEnroe, referring to his predecessor as head coach of the Kingsmen. "So there's not a lot of differences in our base philosophies. Where you see the differences will be in our individual coaching styles, our approach to the game.

"I've had the luxury of coming into the program from the outside and evaluating areas I think needed to be addressed and improved to take a team that the last three years has been one win away from the national playoffs, and hopefully make those adjustments and put our stamp on it."

One of those adjustments, he says, was to opening up every starting job for competition — and more or less keeping it that way.

"I told them when I came in on my interview," says McEnroe, "that every year, we're going to open it up for competition. So my starters Year 1 might not be the same Year 2, even though we're going to have a bunch of returners. The best kids are going to play, and I'm going to put it on my assistant coaches to evaluate those guys on a weekly basis."

And so CLU will start a mix of newcomers — be they freshmen or transfers — alongside a number of returning all-conference players.

The other adjustment McEnroe has emphasized from the start of training camp makes perfect sense, when you recall he's a former offensive lineman.

"In talking to the kids in the offseason," he says, "it was my impression that we needed to get both mentally and physically tougher. I think we've run a pretty physical camp, and the kids have responded well. We'll find out on Saturday where we're at."

The offense figures to be under the closest scrutiny in the season opener, given inevitable concerns about the ability to replace quarterback Danny Jones — who has transferred to Wisconsin-Whitewater for his senior season — and the inability to put together a scoring drive in either the Aug. 25 scrimmage with Ventura College or the intrasquad scrimmage a week later.

"If you look at the performance in the two scrimmages, just from a productivity standpoint, points on the board, you would say we have a long way to go," says McEnroe.

Still, he is optimistic about the offense — primarily a four-receiver spread set, though there will also be two-back and two-tight-end packages — and its potential.

"We have not opened our playbooks completely in the scrimmage situation, and a lot of times in scrimmages, you limit what you're doing based on where you are in camp, and based on the personnel that are in there. I don't think there's any limitations to this offense. You look at our skill positions. We have all-conference guys returning at receiver and running back; we have a very good tight end package. It's just going to come down to how quickly can the offensive line gel, and the quarterback putting us into the position to be successful."

That quarterback will be sophomore Jericho Toilolo, backed up by senior Dustin Willingham. Toilolo appeared in three games last year, completing 2 of 5 passes.

The line is not deep — CLU opened camp with eight offensive linemen — but McEnroe thinks the quality offsets any issues of quantity.

"We've got some physical ability," he says. "It starts with the center, Jeff Briscoe, who is really a coach on the field. He's our only returning starter."

On Briscoe's left will be sophomore tackle Matt Rosen and junior guard Matthew Jean; on his right, freshman guard Mike Puopolo (Oak Park) and sophomore tackle Mike Williams (Newbury Park).

"I think once that group gets a lot of reps together," says McEnroe, who also serves as offensive line coach, "we're going to find that's going to be a strong point for our team for several years to come, because they're such a young group." Backups Alex Moe, Chase Gauthier and Derek Mohl also figure to see action in the opener.

The receiving corps includes three of last year's top four pass catchers — Jesse Matlock (34 receptions, 499 yards, three touchdowns), Brandyn Bennett (29-408, 2 TDs) and Danny Hernandez (16-236, 4 TDs). Also in the mix are Greg Lehman and Rob Fierro (Simi Valley), who saw limited action last year, and newcomer Chris Hammond, a transfer from Northern Arizona.

Running back is clearly a strength, led by seniors Louis Montano (339 yards in seven games) and returning all-conference selection Jose Rojas (665 yards). In the two-back set, freshman Peter Vermillion and Jesse Slaman will line up at fullback.

"There are four guys at that position we feel we can win football games with," says McEnroe, referring as well to backups Antoine Adams and Alex Gomez. Montano and Rojas, he says, are an excellent combination. "One's a power back (Rojas), one's a shiftier back. It really gives us a nice one-two punch."

With four seniors and four juniors as projected starters, the defense is a slightly more veteran group.

The line is led by junior Jacob Calderon, a returning all-conference tackle who is the teams' top returning tackler with 39. Transfer Ian Freeman, at nose guard, "is the strongest guy on our football team a real physical presence," McEnroe said. At ends are returnees Josh Richards, a senior, and sophomore Jason Jenkins. Backups are Sawyer Merrill and Jordan Barta at the ends, and Kyle Taylor and Mike Lango in the interior.

With a 4-2-5 defensive alignment, the linebacker positions are held by seniors Austin Jones — "a spiritual leader," McEnroe says — and Nick Davy, who missed most of last year because of injury. "He's had some of the most impressive tackles in camp," says the coach.

In the 4-2-5, the positions that used to be outside linebackers have evolved into "inverts" in the CLU terminology, linebacker-safety hybrids. Junior transfer Tommy McDonald will play the strong side; freshman Sam Lyche (Camarillo) will play rover. "He's a very versatile guy," says McEnroe.

Chris Denton and Jeff Shalem are the backups.

In the secondary, senior Kyle Ballard and sophomore Garrett Redd were still competing for the starting free safety job early in the week. At the corners, junior Ebere Winston and freshman Eric Lopes will start; Jon Swan and Victor Edwards are the backups.

The number of freshmen in key roles is notable given that, with the coaching transition, CLU has a fairly small freshman class.

"This freshman class is an impressive group," says McEnroe, "and some of the key transfers we picked up are also in the mix."

"While the quantity isn't there, the quality of last year's recruiting class is something we're pretty pleased with."