Ethan Mackenny’s return to Georgia Tech’s lineup big lift for Yellow Jackets

Ethan Mackenny is back.

“I’m really happy that I’m here to help my team and prove that I can play left tackle and play for this team,” he said this week.

Mackenny will make his third start of this season at noon Saturday when he and the Yellow Jackets line up against No. 12 Clemson inside Bobby Dodd Stadium. It will be his 12th career start for the white and gold, but his time at Tech seems much longer than that.

A 6-foot-5, 310-pound left tackle, Mackenny was thrown into the fire — Tech offensive line coach Geep Wade said in August — when he logged 59 snaps against Louisville on Sept. 1, 2023, in that season’s opening game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Mackenny didn’t do great, logging an alarming pass blocking grade from Pro Football Focus of 0.4. But the best was yet to come.

Tech stayed with Mackenny, playing him in nine more games and starting him at left tackle eight times during the ‘23 season. Mackenny played 526 snaps, the fifth most of any Tech offensive lineman, and was named a freshman All-American by ESPN and On3.

So entering the 2024 season, Mackenny was expected to be a major part of Tech’s offensive front. Instead, a bone contusion in Mackenny’s leg, which showed signs of calcification, made for a nearly lost season.

“The moment sucks, so you just gotta make the most of it and prove when you can’t do the role you want you gotta rock the role you’re in,” said Joannah Mackenny, Ethan’s mother. “It’s working on the mental piece of that game and staying strong for himself and his teammates, being the hype man and being the supporting role and growing mentally.

“It came a point where the student piece of his game wasn’t as strong as his physical piece of the game. I think it really gave him an opportunity to step back and really work on that side because you can’t play the way you want to physically so you have to improve and grow in your mental capacity and in your role as a support role on your team.”

Joannah Mackenny may not be as familiar a name to Tech fans as Joannah Kauffman. Under the latter name, Joannah played for the Tech women’s basketball team from 1995-98 and was a captain of the 1997-98 squad. She had 65 blocked shots in ’97-’98 and 170 for her career.

Now the coach of the Lassiter High School girls’ basketball team, Joannah has been with her son every step of his football journey. An important milestone in that journey came June 6, 2022, when Mackenny committed to Tech after taking his first official recruiting visit.

“He did have good amount of schools that had offered him (a scholarship) and talked with him. And Georgia Tech was kind of late to the game,” Joannah explained. “I’ll never forget (former Tech coach Geoff) Collins and (then-Tech offensive line coach Brent) Key pulled up to Lassiter, and I just remember that when they said Tech was here, I was kind of pissed. I went down to the field house and there’s (Key) and there’s Collins and I’m like, ‘Where the hell have you been? Where have you been? You are 35 minutes down the street, what has taken you so long?’ We just started laughing.”

Mackenny became the first member of Tech’s 2023 signing class and, ultimately, one of Key’s first signees after Key was promoted from his interim coaching position after the 2022 season.

“I sat down with Key and said, ‘Well, why should he commit to you this soon? How do I know you wouldn’t drop him for the next cool cat that comes through the door?’” Joannah said. “He said to me, ‘Jo, he could walk out of this room right now and step off a curb and have a career-ending injury, and he’s gonna graduate from Georgia Tech.’ That meant a lot to me.”

After his freshman season in 2023, in which he had his best games against South Carolina State, Bowling Green and North Carolina, Mackenny didn’t see the field until Tech’s ninth game of the 2024 season — and even then, he only got eight offensive snaps at Virginia Tech.

All that set the stage for Mackenny to return to form ahead of the 2025 campaign.

“I think Ethan’s made strides. I think there’s a lot of strides still left for him,” Wade said in August. “For him, he came in and played right away. We threw him in the fire, and he hit a wall. And then last year (with the injuries), he wasn’t over that. And he has really grown up. And I’m proud of Ethan.

“He’s got a long way to go. But he’s brought some stability to us. We’re challenging him now, ‘You’re the guy. You haven’t been the guy before, but now you’re the guy. And you’ve got to bring your ‘A’ game every day.’ He now realizes that.”

Through two games this season Mackenny is the nation’s top pass blocker with a 90.5 grade, according to Pro Football Focus. That, too, is no small feat when considering that just last month the redshirt sophomore had to deal with yet another injury.

He told the story of that injury with an incredulous tone.

“I think it was the second scrimmage of (preseason) camp and we were out on a drive, and I was like looking at my thumb and it was in my glove and it was looking weird,” Mackenny said. “I was like, ‘OK this isn’t just looking like a normal jam.’ It was like at a weird angle. I was talking to (Tech center) Harrison Moore and (I) was like, ‘Bro, look at my finger. I think it’s dislocated.’ But he was like, ‘No, you’re good, just finish the drive.’ So I finished the drive, five plays, then I went off to the sideline and the trainers popped it back into place. I was all right.”

As Tech’s offensive line as a whole continues to grow into its own in the early part of this season, and as the Jackets go for a marquee win Saturday against their rivals from Clemson, it’s become clear Mackenny is a cornerstone of the foundation of the type of program Key is trying to build. Joannah added that her son’s ability to stick with Lassiter through some tough seasons and tough times have allowed him to see the big picture now with his Tech teammates as they continue to push for a breakout season, and perhaps another big-time win Saturday.