Robby Ashford leads Wake Forest past Mississippi State 43-29 in Duke’s Mayo Bowl

By Canadian Press on January 2, 2026.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Robby Ashford threw for 303 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 50 yards and two scores, Koredell Bartley scored on a 100-yard kickoff return and Wake Forest beat Mississippi State 43-29 in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Friday night, earning coach Jake Dickert a mayonnaise bath.

Ashford threw TD passes of 14 yards to Kamrean Johnson, 64 yards to Jack Foley and 62 yards to Ty Clark III and had scoring runs of 2 and 1 yards for the Demon Deacons (9-4). They won seven of their final nine games.

Clark finished with 153 yards from scrimmage after taking over the starting role after second-team All-ACC selection Demond Claiborne opted out of the game after declaring for the NFL draft.

Freshman quarterback Kamario Taylor, making his second college start, had a big second half for Mississippi State (5-8) and finished 13 of 22 for 241 yards and a touchdown. He ran for 60 yards and another score before suffering what appeared to be a significant leg injury with 1:46 left in the game. He was carted off the field and there was no immediate word on the extent of the injury.

After the Bulldogs took an 3-0 lead on the game’s first possession, Bartley fielded the ensuing kickoff at the goal line and weaved his way up the field before turning up the speed and outracing five defenders to the end zone for the longest touchdown in bowl history.

Ashford, a sixth-year QB playing for his fourth college, put Wake Forest ahead 30-12 in the third quarter on a 2-yard run to make it a three-possession game and the Demon Deacons seemed in cruise control.

But the Bulldogs came storming back.

Mississippi State finally found the end zone on the last play of the third quarter when Taylor took a shotgun snap, got a running start and leaped over the line and extended the ball over the goal line on his descent.

He added a 2-point conversion toss to cut it to 10 and then found Sanfrisco Magee over the middle for a 42-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass to make it 30-27 with 10:17 left.

Wake Forest appeared to put it away when Ashford ran for his second touchdown with 4:07 remaining, but Navaeh Sanders blocked the extra point and Kelly Jones scooped it up and scored for 2 points for the Bulldogs to make it 36-29.

On the ensuing possession, Mississippi couldn’t manage a first down and coach Jeff Lebby made the curious decision to punt on fourth-and-11 from the Bulldogs 25 with 2:35 left in the game, putting trust in his defense that it would force a three and out and get the offense the ball back.

That backfired, as Ashford dumped a pass off to Ty Clark III on a third-and-7 and he raced 62 yards untouched to the end zone to seal the win.

The bowl game’s unique tradition includes the winning head getting a 5-gallon bucket filled with 42 1/2 pounds of mayonnaise dumped on his head after the game.

Up next

Mississippi State: Hosts Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 5.

Wake Forest: Hosts Akron on Sept. 3.

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Steve Reed, The Associated Press