GAME NOTES: Wisconsin 42, Wake Forest 28

Game notes kindly provided by the Wisconsin Athletic Department.

• The Badgers finished the season 4-3, giving UW a winning record for the 19th-consecutive season. Those 19-straight winning seasons is the third longest streak among FBS teams.
• 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 three of their last four bowls (2017, ’18, ’20).

• The Badgers improved to 17-15 all-time in bowl games and have won six of their last seven 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 five.
• Paul Chryst improved to 56-19 (.747) to conclude his sixth season as Wisconsin’s head coach, ranking him fourth on UW’s all-time wins list:
• 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 four interceptions, the team’s most since picking off Miami four times in the 2018 Pinstripe Bowl.
• The Badgers have now had four INTs in four different bowl games. In addition to this season and 2018, UW also recorded four 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 four rushing TDs. That mark also set a Duke’s Mayo Bowl record, surpassing the previous record of three.
• The Badgers owned the time of possession category in all seven 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 one touchdown and zero INTs...and one fumble.

• Mertz also rushed for a pair of one-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 two 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 two rushing TDs. It marks the seventh 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 one-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
• Senior WR Jack Dunn caught six passes for 60 yards, equaling the seventh-most receptions in UW’s bowl history.
• Junior TE Jake Ferguson hauled in one pass for 21 yards and has now caught at least one pass in each of his 34 career games, extending the nation’s fourth 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 one-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, his second touchdown of the season and third 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 second 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 second of the season and third of his career.
• Nelson’s 60-yard return is the second 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 first interception of the season and fourth 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.
• Sophomore TE Jaylan Franklin blocked and recovered a Wake Forest punt in the second quarter, the Badgers’ first blocked punt since Alexander Smith recorded a block at Ohio State on Oct. 26, 2019.
• Freshman OLB Aaron Witt tallied a career-high two tackles, both for loss, including his first career sack, bringing down Michael Kern in the fourth quarter.
• Sophomore OL Michael Furtney made the first start of his career, lining up at right guard.