Defense - Suh
Offense - Gerry Gdowski He completed 71 of 136 passes (52.2 percent) for 1,326, threw only two interceptions (none in his last 92 attempts) for a school-record interception percent of 1.47, and threw 19 TD passes, one of Vince Ferragamo's school record. He threw at least one TD pass in 10 of NU's last 11 games, including each of the last nine contests, and exploded for 10 in the last three games. All those figures came together for an NCAA pass rating of 177.3 points, another school record, and one which surpasses the NCAA record of 176.9 set by Brigham Young's Jim McMahon in 1980--but Gdowski averaged only 12.4 attempts per game, and the NCAA minimum is 15.
Gerry also proved to be the Huskers' biggest rushing threat ever at QB, as he ran for 925 yards, breaking the position record of 826 set by Taylor just the year before, and 13 TDs, tying Taylor's 1988 QB record. His four rushing TDs and 174 yards on the ground against Iowa State were both position records, while his 74-yard TD run vs. the Cyclones was the longest ever by a Nebraska QB and the longest run for a Husker in 1989.
That performance helped him average 7.91 yards per attempt in 1989, breaking the old school record (minimum 100 att.) of 7.81 set by IB Mike Rozier in his Heisman Trophy-winning season of 1983. Gdowski's rushing and passing stats combined for a school-record 32 total-offense TDs, and 2,251 total-offense yards, second only to Jerry Tagge's record of 2,333 in 1971--but Tagge played 12 games that season, to Gdowski's 11 in 1989. Gdowski's per-game average of 204.6 broke Tagge's old mark of 194.4
Could imagine what he would do in a real passing game and why he would have the wheels to take NU out of a bad play call by Watson.
