Bryan Ellis practically handed the ball to Trent Mackey. As the University of Alabama-Birmingham quarterback threw a shovel pass right into the waiting hands of Mackey in the backfield, all the Tulane middle linebacker had to do was run as fast as he could toward the end zone.

For one play, Mackey’s sure tackling skills were not needed. The 39-yard interception return for a touchdown was an even simpler play to make than his usual defensive stop.

‘I didn’t think the guy was going to throw the ball,’ Mackey said. ‘It was just too easy. I was standing right in front of the running back when it happened, so I didn’t expect him to try and deliver that ball. When he did it, I just grabbed it and ran for a touchdown.’

Mackey’s nose for the ball — highlighted on that play — has made him a standout player on a mediocre Green Wave defense. In a unit that allows opposing offenses to score 33.4 points per game — ranking eighth in the 12-team Conference USA — Mackey gives the defense a strong presence at middle linebacker.

Mackey spent a year at Duke before transferring to Tulane. And in his first year with the Green Wave after sitting out a season, he led Tulane with 124 tackles last year while playing with multiple injuries — knee, elbow and ankle ailments plagued him for parts of the season. Tulane defensive coordinator Steve Stanard joked Mackey wore more braces than he had appendages.

So for Stanard to say he’s better and healthier this year could be a scary thought for Tulane’s opponents.

‘He’s tough,’ Stanard said. ‘He plays with injuries, he can really run, he has a good nose for the football. He’s made good strides from last year to this year.’

His 55 tackles through five games are by far the most on the team and put him in a tie for 11th among all Football Bowl Subdivision players. Thirty-one of those 55 tackles are solo tackles. These are eye-popping statistics for a player on an up-and-down Tulane (2-3, 1-1 Conference USA) team heading into a game against Syracuse (3-2, 0-1 Big East) on Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Louisiana Superdome.

Aside from the UAB game, when the Green Wave defense held the Blazers to 10 points, Tulane has allowed at least 31 points to its other four opponents in 2011. But Mackey provides the Green Wave with a glimmer of hope its defense can improve.

His toughness is perhaps the most important attribute on the Tulane defense.

That toughness all started only an hour away from Tulane. Growing up in Port Sulphur, La., Mackey was just a ‘straight football player,’ said Randall Mackey, Trent’s cousin and a quarterback for the University of Mississippi.

‘That’s all we did, was play football,’ Randall Mackey said. ‘The one thing you do to keep you out of trouble was play football. And that’s what we did.’

In high school, Mackey was a linebacker and running back for Carencro (La.) High School. During Mackey’s senior season, he had multiple games in which he rushed for nearly 200 yards, Tulane recruiting coordinator Doug Lichtenberger said.

And that efficiency running the ball years ago has given the Tulane coaching staff other ways they think they can use him. Mackey has occasionally lined up at fullback in goal-line situations. He caught a 3-yard touchdown pass on offense in the team’s season opener, a 47-33 win against Southeastern Louisiana. It was Mackey’s first college reception.

‘When he had that interception at UAB that got returned for a touchdown,’ Lichtenberger said, ‘you kind of just start thinking about it, and you laugh to yourself thinking that he scored a touchdown on both sides of the ball. And I think that tells a lot about what type of player he is.’

But Tulane didn’t always have Mackey to turn to. Although the Green Wave recruited the middle linebacker coming out of high school, he ultimately chose to go to Duke. But one year later, Mackey decided to return home and go to Tulane.

‘Obviously, we were very disappointed when we didn’t get him the first time around,’ Lichtenberger said. ‘He’s just a guy. The first thing you look at his height and maybe you think he doesn’t fit as far as height is concerned. But he morphed and maybe doubled and tripled just how hard he plays.’

Mackey is working to improve the Tulane defense from a year ago, a unit that ranked 74th in total defense. He said the team went away from its technique and played ‘yardball,’ just running around instead of focusing on making the plays the team practiced.

‘After a while, we’re down, everybody just wants to be the man to make the plays to help the team win, and somehow that hurt the team a lot more times than it helped,’ Mackey said. ‘So we just need to stay focused.’

Perhaps the most focused the Tulane defense has been was in that game against UAB, when it held the Blazers to 10 points. It was a step in the right direction, but one defensively stout game over an otherwise inconsistent season won’t bring wins.

But with experienced seniors on the defensive line and another junior linebacker in Darryl Farley, the Tulane defense is attempting to take its struggles from last year and turn them into learning tools for this year. And Stanard can see a difference in Mackey from last year — when he was looking for big-time plays — to this year’s more consistent approach.

‘He’s really kind of settled into being a consistent, team defense guy,’ Stanard said. ‘And he’s actually probably making more big plays and more impact plays like the interception he ran back for a touchdown.’

Damien Jackson spoke to Mackey earlier this season, and the Ole Miss safety, who is also Mackey’s cousin, couldn’t believe it when Mackey told him his stats from Tulane’s season opener.

Sixteen tackles in a win over Southeastern Louisiana.

‘Some crazy, crazy number,’ Jackson said.

Jackson mentions Mackey’s instinct, and so does Farley, second on the team in tackles among linebackers behind Mackey. Farley knows the Tulane defense must finish games. That didn’t always happen last season. This season, he’s working with Mackey to improve upon the team’s defensive fundamentals.

And even though the results haven’t been as good as the team has hoped, Farley thinks it will come. And Mackey is a big reason for that.

‘Every game the plays that he makes are outstanding,’ Farley said. ‘He has a knack for the ball.’

Lichtenberger agrees. Happy to have Mackey on the team after getting a second shot at recruiting him, the coach knows that Tulane has a unique talent. When he makes mistakes, he makes sure never to repeat them.

Since the spring, Mackey has added another personal gym workout in addition to the team’s workouts. Because as good as he may have been last year, he isn’t content with the status quo, especially with the struggles of the overall defense.

‘You don’t settle for just equal to less than what you did the previous season,’ Mackey said. ‘You only look for the things you like and try to improve on those things and get better as a player.’

Mackey, now completely healthy, is on his way to putting up big-time numbers that rival last season’s. He’s a constant for the Tulane defense the next two years, whether the rest of the defense improves or continues to get torched.

The way Lichtenberger sees it, Mackey is in a good place now at Tulane. Mackey learned from his experience at Duke and now he’s wreaking havoc for a Tulane defense that needed a star.

‘He can see things before they happen,’ Lichtenberger said. ‘And he just has a way of wherever that ball is, he’s going to find a way to get to it.’

rnmarcus@syr.edu

Published on October 4, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Rachel: rnmarcus@syr.edu