I came across a story in The Oklahoman on Sunday, discussing how more college football teams are turning to offensive schemes that move away from a single primary-back running attack. It's certainly becoming a popular model in the NFL, with young 1-2 punches like Carolina's DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, or the Giants' Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward last season.

There's been a share of criticism from fans in the past three years at USF, which hasn't had a running back go for more than 650 yards in a season since Andre Hall in 2005. Much of that can be attributed to the running of quarterback Matt Grothe, who has rushed for 2,085 yards in his three seasons. Injuries, too, have played a role, with top backs Mike Ford and Jamar Taylor sidelined for parts of the past two seasons.

What I wondered in all this is whether, statistically speaking, an offense that focuses on a single running back is more of less successful than one that spreads its carries among several ballcarriers. Establishing a consistent running game, to be sure, is a huge advantage in college football -- the top seven teams in the BCS (the best 10 percent) in rushing yards last season went a combined 68-25; the bottom seven went 29-56 by comparison.

But is reliance on a single back an advantage? I took all 66 BCS teams and ranked them based on what percentage of the total rushing offense came from their leading rusher. Michigan State, for instance, was amazingly dependent on running back Javon Ringer, who accounted for 96.7 percent of the Spartans' rushing total. Next on the list was Pittsburgh, which was carried by LeSean McCoy, who had 82.3 percent of the Panthers' rushing yards. Both those schools went 9-4 last season, and the next five teams included many of the nation's top running backs, like Iowa's Shonn Greene, Connecticut's Donald Brown and Georgia's Knowshon Moreno.

Those top seven teams went a combined 54-35 last season, which equates to an average 8-5 season.

The bottom seven in the same rankings? USF ranked sixth, getting just 27.5 percent of its rushing yards from Grothe, just slightly less than Southern Cal got from its leading rusher. The two teams who relied the least on one rusher were Florida (20.8 percent from Tim Tebow) and Texas (25.8 percent from Colt McCoy), so three of the bottom seven won at least 12 games last year.

Those bottom seven teams together went 66-25, which equates to nearly 10 wins per school.

It's worth noting, too, that five of the "bottom" six schools had a quarterback among their top two rushers -- Tebow and McCoy led their teams, as did Grothe, and Josh Freeman ranked second at Kansas State, as did quarterback Randall Cobb at Kentucky. And if you're wondering, the BCS average was for a school to get 46.5 percent of its rushing yards from its top rusher.

Just food for thought -- USF has much the same depth at running back as it did last year, which could produce a successful, shared rushing attack, or perhaps a healthy Ford or Taylor could separate themselves from the pack and become a primary ballcarrier.