MADISON -- Early on during fall camp practices this past week, a peculiar set of offensive personnel involved two key contributors in the Badgers' backfield.

"Shhhhhhh," head coach Paul Chryst said in a playful manner when asked about it on Wednesday.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

That would be running backs Jonathan Taylor and Garrett Groshek lined up in the backfield together. The duo both shined in key areas last season, but having the two on the field at same time could create a unique dynamic for opposing defenses to play against.

“I think what you’re trying to do, and camp’s a great time for it, is, 'How can you play with what you think are your best players?,' " Chryst said. "A lot of times your best is also experienced, so I think it’s probably a little bit of that where you’re just trying to [answer], ‘How can we get our best players on the field?’

"We obviously think highly of those two so you’re just trying to find all the different combinations."

In 2018, the two Wisconsin backs made significant impacts on the offense. Taylor led the nation with 2,194 rushing yards on a 7.1 yards per carry average. Along with leading the nation in rushing yards per game (168.8), he claimed unanimous first-team All-American honors and finished the season winning both the Ameche-Dayne Big Ten Running Back of the Year and the Doak Walker Award.

Last season in working more as a down-and-distance type back, Groshek racked up 425 yards on 6.5 yards per attempt while also catching 24 passes as a significant pass catching option out of the backfield.

Both complement each other well in the offense, but Taylor and Groshek are also working on all areas of the game.

"That's a pretty deadly combination," outside linebacker Zack Baun said on Aug. 8. "Start off when I saw that in 21 personnel, I was excited."

According to Groshek, "it's been in the works."

“We’ve been trying to push that through for a while," Groshek said, "but now that we’ve actually started implementing it -- and even talking to some of the defensive guys -- they’re like, ‘I don’t know what you guys are about to do.

"That gives the upper hand sometimes. It gives us versatility, and it’s something extra that a defense has to game-plan for.”

A byproduct of that versatility can lead to an unpredictability that could greatly help Wisconsin's offense in defenses rightfully honing in on Taylor.

“You want to be an offense that’s unpredictable, keep the defense on their toes, always have them playing honest," Taylor said on Aug. 8. "So I think experimenting with different things, like I said, this is the time to do it during fall camp. Being able to get reps in different looks, so I think this is a perfect time to try some things out like that.”

When asked about the personnel last week, redshirt senior inside linebacker Chris Orr displayed the various scenarios they could be used in.

"You have like no clue what's coming at all," Orr said on Aug. 8. "It could be a run either way. It could be some type of an away scheme, double screen, both of them running a wheel, one of them running a pipe one of them running a wheel.

"You just never know what's coming, so it's definitely caused us a few problems -- not problems -- but makes you think a lot. I'm ready for them to pull that out in the season for real."

One area where many have focused on with Taylor is his production in the passing game, or maybe lack thereof. Last season, he caught just eight balls for 60 yards, and one of those receptions turned into a 30-yard gain.

Last week, Taylor told reporters he feels more comfortable catching the ball than he perviously did. He noted knowing his assignments as a reason he previously did not catch as cleanly and not being able to play as fast.

Groshek mentioned the work put in by Taylor to fix that, whether it was in the meeting rooms or during last season's bowl prep with Taylor catching passes out of the jugs machine when he was not taking reps on the field.

"That's kind of something that you can see that he's taken to another level and you can see him making a difference in the passing game now," Groshek said. "With that, the sky's the limit. It's going to be hard to take him off the field."

A couple of times last week, Taylor praised Groshek's ability to see the "big picture," a result of being a former quarterback at the prep level and in his first year at UW before switching to running back. In the Doak Walker Award winner's eyes, that has helped Groshek, the former walk-on.

"He knows the offense inside and out," Taylor said. "Transferring over from quarterback to running back so that's one of the things, he sees kind of like the big picture. It comes easily to him. Ever since I got up here, I'm always picking his brain on runs, passes, what is he seeing. He's been a great tool for me since I've been here."

According to Groshek, the two backs are "always bouncing ideas off of each other."

"Sometimes Coach Sett (John Settle) has to get us to try to stop talking to each other," Groshek said. "Obviously, they're usually always good conversations about what happens when we can get this or that. This has been the same relationship from when he first got here. It's just kind of learning off of each other and work together to figure out how to become better players."

After finals concluded in May, Taylor and Groshek also worked down in Florida with a group of players that included former Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon. During Big Ten Media Days, Taylor acknowledged they spent a week down in the Sunshine State, and Groshek mentioned the different techniques he used.

"It's always cool to hear a different perspective on whether, it's sprint mechanics or running, lifting," Groshek said. "Anything like that, it's always good to get as many eyes on it as you can. It just gave us a couple more tools to add whether it's warming up and getting ready for things, or different exercises we can do to make sure that our bodies are ready to play the game."

When or if Wisconsin deploys the personnel with both on the field in a real game time setting remains to be seen until UW plays South Florida on Aug. 30. Needless to say, Groshek is excited for the opportunity to play a snap together in the Wisconsin backfield. He believes with both on the field for the Badgers, they feel they could provide "a good opportunity to help the team.”

According to Taylor, they "want to be the spark of this team."

"We want to make sure the running back room is one that will make plays," Taylor said. "We want to be really dynamic, so any time we can do anything to be on the field at the same time and show our talents, we want to do it. We want to make sure we could do it well."