{"id":84740,"date":"2026-01-03T13:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T18:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=84740"},"modified":"2026-01-03T13:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T18:14:09","slug":"84740-what-wake-forest-said-after-the-mayo-bowl-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/01\/03\/84740-what-wake-forest-said-after-the-mayo-bowl-win\/","title":{"rendered":"What Wake Forest Said After the Mayo Bowl Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday\u2019s 43-29 win over Mississippi State in the Duke\u2019s Mayo Bowl<\/a> put an exclamation point on the season for Wake Forest and first-year head coach Jake Dickert. The Demon Deacons finished the season 9-4 overall and became only the fourth Wake team to finish the season with at least nine wins. Dickert is also the winningest first-year head coach in Wake history. As the season comes to an end, we get the thoughts from Dickert and some players. Let\u2019s check in on what Wake Forest had to say after the Mayo Bowl win.<\/p>\n

Jake Dickert<\/h3>\n

He came into the postgame press conference with a towel around his neck, having done us all a favor and showering from the mayo bath before he took questions from the media.<\/p>\n

Quarterback Robby Ashford had his season inside of one game. Outside of a few plays, he struggled in the first half, going 8 for 19 through the air for 101 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. But he finished the game 20 for 33 passing for 303 yards, three touchdowns, and an interception. He also had 50 yards rushing with two touchdowns. It was the first five-touchdown game in his career, and he was named the game\u2019s MVP.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him in the locker room, I\u2019m proud of him,\u201d Dickert said. \u201cEven to the last two minutes of the game, every once in a while, he frustrates the hell out of me. But this guy competes. He\u2019s ready for the moment. Every moment is not too big for him. I think, as our season went on, you saw a player that felt we believed in him and he started to flourish.\u201d<\/p>\n

MSU was putting up big yards with big plays. But the Bulldogs were being held to field goals throughout much of the game, but a Wake Forest defense that stepped up throughout much of the season. \u201cThe catalyst of this whole season, I mean, you talk about the spine of the defense, you\u2019re talking about Nick Anderson, one of the best leaders that I have ever been around,\u201d Dickert said. \u201cQuincy Bryant, Dylan Hazen, Devaughn Patterson. You know, these guys have just been amazing players and even better people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forward Looking<\/h3>\n

He was asked if there is a new standard for Wake Forest football based on his first season. \u201cI know it\u2019s a lot higher than it was a year ago. I think that was always the goal. That was always the mindset. That\u2019s a credit to the players. They bought into it,\u201d he said. \u201cOur staff works tirelessly hard to go out and put these guys in great situations and circumstances to go make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he is already looking ahead to what\u2019s next. \u201cThis needs to be a springboard. I\u2019ve always said year two is harder than year one. Now that we\u2019ve created success, we\u2019ve got to realize it isn\u2019t just going to happen again. We\u2019ve got to go ahead and make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickert talked about his message a year after he was hired, when most in the fan base were not the least bit familiar with him. \u201cI was just riding in the elevator with some Wake Forest fans, and they didn\u2019t even know who I was, so it still happens,\u201d he said, getting laughs from the room of reporters. \u201cPeople have believed in us. But we can\u2019t be satisfied with this. There is an industry of college football that is happening, and we can be a great team at Wake Forest. Yes, we can. It\u2019s going to take all of us to raise the level of what we can continue to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickert has been working with is staff and talking to players in the transfer portal since Friday morning.<\/p>\n

\"What
Photo from Tony Siracusa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Robby Ashford<\/h3>\n

He lost his biggest fan, his father, during Spring camp. \u201cIt\u2019s been a wild journey. You know, losing my father was probably one of the hardest things I\u2019ve ever had to deal with,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping he\u2019s looking down at me smiling, because at the end of the day, I do it all for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashford said he did not realize he had set a career high for touchdowns until he was reminded on the sidelines that he had five touchdowns. \u201cYou\u2019re just kind in that flow state. You\u2019re just playing,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a credit to my teammates,\u201d he said, reciting the big plays by Kamrean Johnson, Jack Foley, and Ty Clark, and the offensive line. \u201cHats off to them,\u201d he said of the line. I feel like that was their best game. They dominated the line of scrimmage, and we were able to do what we wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ashford was in his fourth college football program and finishes his college career at Wake Forest. After only a year in Winston-Salem, he talked about how he hopes people remember him. \u201cA quarterback who left it out there every single game,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope these folks look at me as a quarterback who was just a tough MFer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick Anderson<\/h3>\n

After six years, his Wake Forest career comes to an end. He went from walk-on to all-conference player, and someone Dickert dubbed as \u201cCaptain America.\u201d He said, \u201cIt was a great team win. No other way you want to go out and send the rest of the seniors out and end Coach Dickert\u2019s first season the way we should.\u201d<\/p>\n

He talked about the new era of college football with NIL, revenue sharing, and the transfer portal. How does Wake manage those waters? \u201cThe number one thing is trust in Coach Dickert and the staff. This is just a taste of where Wake is going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson was the leading tackler in the game with 12 (six solo and six assists) and one sack. He finishes the season as the leading tackler on the team with 106. He said he hopes the legacy he is leaving behind is, \u201cJust consistent hard work each and every day. Trust in your coaches and play for the guys next to you,\u201d he said. \u201cYour journey\u2019s not going to be straight up. I\u2019ve had plenty of lows and stuff. But just trust in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it had not yet sunk in that he had taken the Wake uniform off for the last time. But when asked about the jersey, \u201cOh, I\u2019m keeping it,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Devin Kylany<\/h3>\n

The center came from Washington State, having spent all but this last season playing for the Cougars. He had committed to play for Mike Leach before Leach left for Mississippi State. He stayed through the Nick Rolovich and Jake Dickert periods there and then followed his coach to Wake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was worth it,\u201d he said of following Dickert to Wake Forest. \u201cHe\u2019ll sacrifice so much to win. I learned that when he became the head coach at Washington State.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there was a bond that was built within the offensive line, even with some of them being new to the program. \u201cWhen you can see a defense and be able to communicate without communicating; when you can be on the same page without saying all those things, it\u2019s really special. It really helped out.\u201d\u00a0 Kylany said he sees in the returning linemen and thinks it will now be a point of emphasis in Spring camp and beyond.<\/p>\n

He was carrying the game ball with him as if he were a running back protecting it. He was not about to let go of it. \u201cThey tried twice [to take it from him].\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Image: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday\u2019s 43-29 win over Mississippi State in the Duke\u2019s Mayo Bowl put an exclamation point on the season for Wake Forest and first-year head coach Jake Dickert. The Demon Deacons finished the season 9-4 overall and became only the fourth Wake team to finish the season with at least nine wins. Dickert is also the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":84744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,7361,2,35585,3,35643],"tags":[35479,6945,9582,33534,9186],"class_list":["post-84740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc","category-bowl-games","category-featured","category-mississippi-state-bulldogs","category-sec","category-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-devin-kylany","tag-dukes-mayo-bowl","tag-jake-dickert","tag-nick-anderson","tag-robby-ashford"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84740"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84746,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84740\/revisions\/84746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}