Listen: Wisconsin Badgers discusss season ending win

(WNFL) – It wasn’t an artistic success but it will go down in the record book as a win and that’s all the Wisconsin Badgers football team cares about.

In Wednesday’s Duke Mayo Bowl game, Wisconsin overcame a 14-0 deficit after one quarter and scored a 42-28 win over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

Badgers coach Paul Chryst said it was the defense that turned things around.

Badgers quarterback Graham Mertz didn’t light it up but he did complete 11-of-17 passes for 130 yards. Amherst’s Garrett Groshek led the Badgers (4-3) with 41 yards rushing on 13 carries and Jack Dunn had 6 receptions for 60 yards.

Mertz said it was a good finish to a season tested the team.

Badgers linebacker Jack Sanborn concurred that it was a long difficult season.

The key to the win?

Wisconsin picked off four passes thrown by Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman.

Wake Forest outgained Wisconsin 518 yards to 266 yards.

Wisconsin, however, owned the time of possession 33:52 to 26:08.

Odds and ends

·        Wisconsin claimed its first-ever meeting with Wake Forest, improving to 10-9-1 all-time vs. the current membership of the ACC. The Badgers are 5-1 in bowl games vs. ACC foes, including wins over ACC opponents in 3 of their last 4 bowls (2017, ’18, ’20).

·        The Badgers improved to 17-15 all-time in bowl games and have won 6 of their last 7 bowls, dating to the 2014 season. UW improved to 9-4 all-time in bowls played in the month of December, including wins in each of its last 5.

·        Paul Chryst improved to 56-19 (.747) to conclude his sixth season as Wisconsin’s head coach, ranking him 4th on UW’s all-time wins list:

* Also served as coach in 2 bowl games (2012, 2014)

·        Under Chryst, Wisconsin is: 5-1 (.833) in bowl games, 25-13 (.658) in road and neutral-site games, 37-13 (.740) in Big Ten Conference play and  27-7 (.794) vs. the Big Ten West Division

·        Wisconsin’s 42 points is the highest scoring output for the Badgers in a bowl game, surpassing the previous record of 38 against Utah in the 1996 Copper Bowl. UW’s 14-point margin of victory equals the team’s third-largest for a bowl game.

·        The Badgers came back to win after trailing 14-0. That marks UW’s largest ever comeback in a bowl game. The win also marks UW’s largest comeback since overcoming a 27-13 deficit en route to a 47-44 (3OT) win at Purdue on Nov. 17, 2018.

·        Wisconsin posted 4 interceptions, the team’s most since picking off Miami 4 times in the 2018 Pinstripe Bowl. The Badgers have now had 4 INTs in 4 different bowl games. In addition to this season and 2018, UW also recorded 4 picks against Duke in the 1995 Hall of Fame Bowl and vs. Utah in the 1996 Copper Bowl.

·        The Badgers turned Noah Burks’ interception in the third quarter into a Mason Stokke touchdown to take a 28-21 lead and then converted Scott Nelson’s pick in the fourth quarter into a Garrett Groshek TD run and a Collin WIlder INT into a touchdown from Jalen Berger. On the season, the Badgers converted 10 of its 13 forced turnovers into points.

·        Wisconsin matched a school bowl record with 4 rushing TDs. That mark also set a Duke’s Mayo Bowl record, surpassing the previous record of 3.

·        The Badgers owned the time of possession category in all 7 games this season, boasting a 33:52 to 26:08 advantage against Wake Forest.

·        Redshirt freshman QB Graham Mertz completed 11-of-17 passes for 130 yards with 1 touchdown and zero INTs. Mertz also rushed for a pair of 1-yard touchdowns — the first rushing TDs of his career — to tie the game at 14-all in the second quarter and 21-all in the third quarter. Mertz’s 2 rushing scores matches the Duke’s Mayo Bowl record for rushing touchdowns, with Mertz becoming the eighth player in the game’s history to score 2 rushing TDs. It marks the 7th time a Badger has scored multiple rushing TDs in a bowl game.

·        Senior RB Garrett Groshek ran for a team-high 41 yards on 13 carries, including a 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

·        Senior WR Jack Dunn caught 6 passes for 60 yards, equaling the 7th-most receptions in UW’s bowl history.

·        Junior TE Jake Ferguson hauled in 1 pass for 21 yards and has now caught at least 1 pass in each of his 34 career games, extending the nation’s 4th longest active streak. Ferguson’s 34 straight games with a reception marks the longest streak by a tight end in school history.

·        Senior FB Mason Stokke pulled in a 14-yard touchdown pass from Mertz in the third quarter to give the Badgers their first lead of the game, at 28-21. The touchdown was Stokke’s third TD reception of the season (and of his career).

·        Junior FB John Chenal opened the scoring for the Badgers with a 1-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, his 2nd touchdown of the season and 3rd of his career.

·        Senior S Collin Wilder recorded his second career interception, returning it 72 yards, marking the Badgers’ second-longest INT return in bowl history.

·        Senior OLB Noah Burks picked off a Sam Hartman pass in the third quarter to set up the Badgers’ go-ahead scoring drive, the 2nd interception of his career.

·        Junior S Scott Nelson intercepted a Hartman pass in the fourth quarter and returned it 60 yards to set up the touchdown that gave UW a 34-21 lead. The pick was Nelson’s 2nd of the season and 3rd of his career. Nelson’s 60-yard return is the 2nd longest INT return in UW bowl game history.

·        Junior ILB Jack Sanborn notched a team-high 10 tackles, including 2.0 tackles for loss. He also picked off a Sam Hartman pass in the fourth quarter, his 1st interception of the season and 4th of his career. Sanborn also recorded an interception in the Badgers’ bowl game in 2019 (Rose Bowl).

·        Freshman WR Devin Chandler, a Huntersville, North Carolina native, recorded a career-long 59-yard kickoff return in the third quarter, the Badgers’ longest kick return of the season and fifth-longest in a bowl game.  Chandler also had an 18-yard run in the third quarter on the first carry of his career.