The nature of community college football is such that teams are in constant flux.

Coaches get two years to mold players into cohesive units while always keeping an eye on the future. The hope is players get their feet wet as freshmen and then move into starting roles as sophomores.

There are some exceptions of freshmen starting but a year of experience makes a world of difference in the college game.

The College of San Mateo football team (6-4 overall, 1-4 NorCal Conference), lost a lot of talent from last year’s 6-4 club, but the Bulldogs have plenty of returners at key positions to carry the team early on until positions and roles settle.

The Bulldogs will get their first chance to see exactly what they have when they travel across the San Mateo Bridge to take on Chabot College of Hayward 7 p.m. Saturday.

“We’re trying to get polished up for this Saturday,” said CSM head coach and defensive coordinator Larry Owens. “It’s early so there’s a lot of questions.”

The biggest question facing CSM is who will be the starting quarterback. Sophomore Kevin Linnell (6-foot-2, 190), out of Kennedy High in Fremont, is the incumbent, having started seven games in 2004, throwing for nearly 1,600 yards and rushing for 500 more.

Linnell is being pushed by a couple of local products — former San Mateo High starter Jose Avina (5-foot-10, 180), who gray-shirted last year, and true freshman Julian Edelman (5-foot-11, 185) out of Woodside. Both Avina and Edelman led their high school teams to Central Coast Section titles their senior years.

Both have pushed for the starting job in camp this year and the competition is so close, the coaching staff has yet to settle on a starter for Saturday.

“The three are so close to each other,” Owens said. “There is no separation there. … We have a general idea of what Kevin has done because he’s played a year. You’re hoping that with the experience it would be cut and dry. It’s not anything that Kevin hasn’t done, it’s more what the other guys have done.”

Whoever gets the starting nod will be aided by a rushing attack that should be more explosive this year. In the Bulldogs’ spread attack, every running back is an option to run the ball on every play. Fullback Sean Connor (5-foot-10, 190) is the Bulldogs’ leading returning rusher. Joining him will be 5-foot-6, 165-pound scatback Delbecio Ben, a sophomore out of Terra Nova. Although diminutive, he showed flashes of brilliance last season, averaging nearly six yards a carry and nearly 17 yards on kickoff returns. Michael Harris, a freshman from Oakland’s Castlemont High, is another back the CSM coaching staff is high on.

“I think we have a little more explosion this year,” Owens said. “Kids like Ben [and] Michael Harris ... can make explosive plays. Last year, we used two tight ends because that’s what we had, but we weren’t making explosive plays. Del Ben can take it the distance any time.”

Opening holes and providing protection is a big, fairly experienced offensive line. Landon Laurusaitis (6-foot-3, 280), James Trethaway (6-foot-6, 300) are two returning starters who will be joined by San Jose City College transfer Alex Reyes (6-foot-4, 330).

The defensive side of the ball presents a few more questions. The strength is at linebacker with Kyle Ballard (Terra Nova), Nick Davy (Terra Nova), Joey Guntren (Serra), Gerald Thompson (Terra Nova) and Pete Thompson (South San Francisco) all returning.

There are more questions on the defensive line and in the secondary, however. Sandeep Bath (DL, San Mateo) and Ryan Battle (CB, San Lorenzo) are the only players who saw significant playing time last season.

“We have a good nucleus of linebackers that played (in 2004). Right now, that’s our strength,” Owens said. “But we have some young kids that are filtering in on the defensive line and secondary.”

The Bulldogs need to find out who can and can’t play because competing in the vaunted NorCal Conference is no easy task. The conference features perennial state powers City College of San Francisco (11-1 in 2004), Butte (9-2), Foothill (8-3), Santa Rosa (7-4) and Sacramento City College (2-8). CSM, which went 1-4 in conference play in its inaugural year in 2004, beat only Sacramento. The Bulldogs will have their hands full once they get into conference play and it’s up to the coaching staff — as well as the sophomores — to make sure the team is ready.

“We’re trying to build depth. This is a very physical level we’re at. We can’t just have [starters]. We need to have depth. You don’t want to get into a situation where you go from [starters] to [third string]. I want to be two-deep in every department,” Owens said. “[The CSM players] are going to be playing against some great players. Three, four years from now, some of these (opposing) players will be playing in the NFL.”