At the beginning of the season, Nevada touted its backfield as having three 1,000-yard rushers.

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick and running back Vai Taua had each rushed for more than 1,000 yards last season, and running back Luke Lippincott, who missed last year with a knee injury, had rushed for more than 1,000 yards in 2007.

But Nevada would have never imagined that it would be claiming that same statistic about all three players in the same backfield in the same year.

After last week’s game against New Mexico State, Nevada became the first school in NCAA history to have three 1,000-yard rushers in the same year. Heading into Friday’s game against Boise State, Taua has rushed for 1,185 yards, Kaepernick for 1,129 and Lippincott for 1,028. The Nevada running game ranks first in the country with 373.18 yards per game and it constitutes 70 percent of Nevada’s total offense.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in the country that would think that in particular in one season,” Nevada coach Chris Ault said about having three 1,000-yard rushers this season.

The feat is especially impressive considering Lippincott started the season as the team’s X receiver and didn’t start playing running back full time until the fourth game. Through the first three games of the season, the Wolf Pack had amassed 540 yards on the ground. When they committed to moving Lippincott back into the backfield, the Wolf Pack had 559 rushing yards against UNLV, their first win of the season.

The Wolf Pack have won eight consecutive games since the switch.

“They wanted to spread our offense a little bit more, and for a couple weeks before the Notre Dame game I started working out at receiver,” Lippincott said. “I was doing pretty good at receiver. But then, we went 0-3 the first couple games and they decided to put me back [in the backfield]. We’ve just been running with a full head of steam ever since.”

Ault said he moved Lippincott to receiver because of his athleticism, but it was also because the Wolf Pack were trying to become more balanced on offense. In the spring and throughout the summer, Kaepernick devoted almost all of his time toward refining the passing game. Through his first two seasons as starter, he’d shown that he had some zip in his arm, but he had a hard time controlling where he put the ball. So he worked on his touch and his rapport with his receivers. The goal coming into the year was to allow him to show off that part of his game.

But in doing so, the Wolf Pack got away from the one area that has made them successful the past few years. Only 47 times in NCAA history has a team had two 1,000-yard rushers in the backfield and Nevada has done it twice, including last year with Taua and Kaepernick.

The Wolf Pack quickly realized that while being balanced was important, playing toward the team’s strengths was going to win games.

“The holes that our offensive line started opening up were ridiculous, and three backs over 1,000 yards proves it,” Taua said. “Because of that, it’s not just one guy who can do it, all three of us can. ... And when you look over to the side and there’s a guy that can do just as good if not better than you waiting, it makes you feel a lot better and helps the team out a lot.”

Since Nevada started committing to its running game after the third game of the season, the Wolf Pack haven’t rushed for fewer than 312 yards. They have rushed for at least 400 yards five times this season and more than 500 yards three times. In the past three games, Nevada has rushed for a combined 1,552 yards, which is almost as many yards as several FBS teams have rushed for in an entire season.

However, the Wolf Pack will face their biggest challenge this week against Boise State in a game that will determine the Western Athletic Conference title. Boise State has the best rushing defense the Wolf Pack have faced this season, but Nevada is confident that if it keeps running as hard as it has the past eight games, that it might be able to beat Boise State for the first time since 1998.

“I definitely think this is the best overall team that we’ve had in the past couple years, even better than the team we had when we won the WAC championship a few years ago,” Lippincott said.

Added Taua: “I think this is the best chance we have.”