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Wisconsin Badgers accidentally shatter trophy while celebrating Duke's Mayo Bowl win

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Wisconsin Badgers captured the Duke's Mayo Bowl and the trophy that came along with it.

And then they broke it.

While dancing around to celebrate his team's 42-28 victory over Wake Forest on Wednesday, quarterback Graham Mertz dropped the football-shaped piece of Lenox crystal, leaving it shattered on the floor of the locker room after it fell off its base.

"We just wanted everybody to have a piece of that trophy,'' Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst joked.

Mertz accounted for three touchdowns, and Wisconsin turned four second-half interceptions, each by a different player, into 21 points to turn a close game into a near-rout of the Demon Deacons. Five players scored touchdowns for the Badgers.

Mertz, a redshirt freshman, threw for 130 yards and ran for two short TDs as Wisconsin (4-3) finished a rocky 2020 season on a high note.

"Yeah, I dropped it,'' Mertz said sheepishly. "That's on me. It happened.''

But not to worry: Mertz was able to "fix" the trophy by taping a bottle of Duke's mayonnaise to the base, as evidenced in his Instagram story.

The sponsor agreed with the fix, tweeting: "Duke's makes everything better, right @BadgerFootball?"

The Charlotte Sports Foundation, which supplied the crystal football for the trophy, told the Charlotte Observer on Thursday that it would be replaced.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.