Christian McCaffrey led the nation in virtually every cumulative offensive category in 2015, with one glaring exception: touchdowns.

McCaffrey racked up an NCAA record 3,864 all-purpose yards, yet crossed the goal line only 15 times. Though more than 2,000 of those yards came on the ground, McCaffrey scored only eight rushing touchdowns.

In comparison, Alabama's Derrick Henry -- the only player who finished ahead of McCaffrey in the Heisman Trophy voting and the only other back who amassed more than 2,000 rushing yards -- racked up 28 touchdowns.

The reason behind the disparity is simple: Henry handled the load near the goal line for the Crimson Tide, but McCaffrey didn't assume the same role for the Cardinal. Stanford instead saved its primary short-yardage duties for senior Remound Wright, who gobbled up 13 touchdowns despite rushing for only 239 yards.

Because Wright has graduated, Stanford is reworking its short-yardage plan of attack. That means that the versatile McCaffrey is in line to assume yet another job, one that should help pad his touchdown total in 2016.

"I think Christian is going to get plenty of carries in our short-yardage and goal-line packages, because he's so dynamic," Stanford running backs coach Lance Taylor said Monday. "Anytime he touches the ball, he has a chance to score."

Last season, Wright averaged one touchdown per 5.9 offensive touches, the top rate in the nation. He also either moved the chains or scored a touchdown on 53.7 percent of his rushes in 2015.

"We had one of the best short-yardage and goal-line runners that we've had since David Shaw and Jim Harbaugh have been here," Taylor said. "If you watched Remound's runs, he was the best we had. He won that competition."

Wright's efficiency served to weaken McCaffrey's final statistical résumé in the scoring department. Touchdowns are, after all, a finite resource.

It appears McCaffrey will have more opportunities to score them in 2016.

The Cardinal also have 220-pound power back Cameron Scarlett, 240-pound fullback Daniel Marx and speedster Bryce Love vying for carries near the goal line. Though Taylor said all three will be part of a short-yardage combination, it appears McCaffrey is now Stanford's favored commodity in those situations.

At the very least, even if he splits carries at close range with the Cardinal's other backs, it seems certain that McCaffrey will see more short-yardage opportunities than he did when Wright was Stanford's specialist.

That alone should translate into more touchdowns for McCaffrey moving forward -- even if he doesn't match his prodigious yardage total from last season.