- The Washington Times - Thursday, December 31, 2020

Oops. One moment, quarterback Graham Mertz and his Wisconsin teammates are dancing in the locker room, Duke’s Mayo Bowl trophy firmly in hand.

And the next, a sudden hush falls over the group. The trophy is lying on the floor, in a thousand pieces. That certainly wasn’t the plan.

“Yeah, I dropped it,” Mertz said. “That’s on me. It happened.”

The Badgers won the trophy by toppling Wake Forest, 42-28, on Wednesday in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Mertz threw one touchdown pass and snuck in for another two rushing scores. And Wisconsin’s defense did the rest, turning a tight first half into a no-doubter by picking off Demon Deacons quarterback Sam Hartman four times.

Then, the team earned that trophy.

“We just wanted everybody to have a piece of that trophy,’’ Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst said (via ESPN).

Mertz had a way to fix the trophy, though, taking advantage of all the mayo bottles laying around. All he needed was some duct tape to secure the bottle to the base.

That trophy may stand out like a sore thumb in Wisconsin’s trophy cabinet for years to come. But at least the story of how it ended up that way will be memorable.

• Andy Kostka can be reached at akostka@washingtontimes.com.

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