Former Braves coach remembers Penn State upset
Eric Young remembers breaking the huddle, trotting to the line of scrimmage and motioning left before the snap. The former Rutgers wide receiver can close his eyes and still see the Penn State linebacker stepping up to the line to defend him. And he recalls the look from his quarterback.
Young played in more than 1,700 Major League Baseball games over a 15-year career and coached in nearly 1,400 games over nine seasons since retiring in 2006. Only a few Rutgers football players over the past three decades can say they’ve attained more professional success than Young, who reached the pinnacle of his athletic achievements earlier this month when the Atlanta Braves won the World Series. A 54-year old New Brunswick native who was inducted into the Rutgers athletics hall of fame in 1999, Young completed his fourth season as the Braves’ first base coach in 2021.
But 33 years after starring as a two-sport athlete at Rutgers, Young still remembers everything about the touchdown that got the ball rolling to one of the biggest upsets in school history.
“Absolutely one of the best games I’ve been a part of,’’ he said.
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Most of all he remembers the look from Scott Erney, the recordsetting former Rutgers quarterback who delivered the 38-yard touchdown pass four minutes into a sold-out affair at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., on Sept. 24, 1988.
It came out of the aptly named “E formation,’’ Young said.
A week before the Week 3 game at a Penn State, Rutgers dropped a 31-30 decision to Vanderbilt at Giants Stadium. It was a heartbreaking result, but Young’s performance was memorable. The 5-foot-9, 185-pound receiver’s 13 receptions tied a 22-year old school record and finished with 171 yards on a day when Erney passed for a then-record 436 yards.
“Against Vanderbilt I had caught a bunch of passes in the flat,’’ Young said. “Dick Curl, our offensive coordinator at the time, told us going in, ‘When we get into that formation Penn State is going to be expecting you to go to the flat. So if we get man-to-man against a linebacker you’re going to shift and go in.’ And that’s what happened.’’
Indeed, after Erney broke the huddle he discreetly waved his right arm to direct Young to motion left before the snap. Young lined up two yards behind the line in the slot. He was matched up one-onone with Scott Gob, Penn State’s 245-pound linebacker.
“Of all the receivers that I’ve ever played with E.Y. and I could look at each other and we kind of knew what the other guy was thinking,’’ Erney told NJ Advance Media on Thursday. “We both played a lot together so that’s probably why we had that type of connection. Any time I’d see him on a linebacker it was game over at that point because he was so quick. When we got to the line there I knew there was no chance of a linebacker staying with him.’’
Erney took the snap under center, dropped back four steps and delivered an 18-yard dart to Young, who sprinted to pay dirt for the game’s opening score.
“Once we got man-to-man against a linebacker me and Erney looked at each other,’’ Young said. “I knew they’d think I was faking going out (to the flat) and instead I just cut down the middle. I remember it like it was yesterday. Erney went a couple steps back and pow, threw that thing right to me. And it was off to the races after that.’’
Penn State rallied with a field goal and a touchdown to take a
10-7 lead into halftime.
But a pair of third-quarter touchdown runs by Mike Botti and a heroic goal-line stand in the final minutes gave Rutgers its first win over Penn State in 70 years.
“I just think it was a total team effort that day,’’ Erney said. “It wasn’t one guy who had a tremendous game that was the difference; we played great team defense, with the goal-line stand at the end of the game really standing out for me, and made the plays offensively when it counted.’’
For the 1988 Rutgers team, the upset over then-No. 15 Penn State snapped a 15-game losing streak in a series that began in 1918.
On Saturday, when Rutgers returns to State College, Pa., to face Penn State for a noon kickoff, the Scarlet Knights will be looking to snap a 14-game losing streak to the Nittany Lions.
“I am surprised it’s been that long since we beat Penn State,’’ Erney said.
A Pennsylvania native, Erney attended the Michigan State game in Piscataway last month and still follows Rutgers on a weekly basis. He finished his prolific career as Rutgers’ all-time passing leader, racking up 7,188 yards, a 54.4 completion percentage, and 41 touchdowns from 1986-89.
“The records I had when I graduated, I knew they’d be broken at some point and I was happy when they were,’’ he said. “And I’ll be happy when this (1988) win (over Penn State) is not talked about to the extent that it’s talked about over the years.
“I hope this is the year they snap the streak. I really do.’’
From his Atlanta home, Young echoed that sentiment. Like Erney, he follows Rutgers football.
“I watch them every now and then,’’ Young said.
He can be excused for being a bit preoccupied as the Braves steamrolled their way to the championship
this fall.
“To reach the World Series and become champions, I’ll tell you what, it hasn’t really sunk in yet,’’ he said. “I think it will when we get our rings opening day of next year. But it’s unbelievable what this championship has meant to the city and to Georgia. If you know anything about Atlanta sports they always seemed to get close but they never finished the job. We were able to do it, and it’s a monumental achievement down here. They’ve been craving for a championship for a long time.’’
On Oct. 2, the Braves were wrapping up the regular season with a home game against the New York Mets. One of the Atlanta players approached him on the field during batting practice and noticed Ohio State was Rutgers’ opponent that day.
“He kidded me, ‘Whoa, Rutgers has a tough one today,’‘’ Young said. “And I told him, ‘You watch, they’re going to hang tough with them.’‘’