Georgia Tech already has one difficult loss this season to a team from Virginia in an ACC Coastal Division game.

If the Yellow Jackets want to maintain any hope of winning the division title, they can’t afford another.

That’s what makes Georgia Tech’s game Saturday with Virginia so important.

The Yellow Jackets opened their season with a loss to Virginia Tech in a game they should have won. It was on the road, yes, and it was a tough, close contest, for sure. But it was a game, in the end, the Yellow Jackets had a real chance to win. Yet, they let it slip away.

That can’t happen again if Georgia Tech is going to play a part -- other than a spoiler role -- in the division race. So the Yellow Jackets need to take care of business Saturday against Virginia.

Virginia Tech does have to play the two top teams from the Atlantic Division -- Florida State and Clemson -- so it is conceivable that the Hokies could end up with several conference losses. But it’s not likely.

Georgia Tech is already behind in the race, and it can’t fall much deeper into a hole this early in the season. Avoiding that means playing well against Virginia.

The Cavaliers are coming off an emotional win over Penn State last week, but we all know that Penn State isn’t Penn State this year (and probably won’t be for the next few years). That was an ugly game last week for Virginia. It didn’t play well, made a lot of silly mistakes and was overall sloppy throughout the game.

Georgia Tech played well last week, but that was against an overmatched Presbyterian team, so it’s hard to put much stock in that game. The Yellow Jackets, however, will need the same kind of effort Saturday in their execution, focus and preparation for this big game.

Those things were all there last week, and it will be important for that to be the case for the second straight week. If that’s true and Georgia Tech is on top of all the little things, it should be able to come away with a win.

That will get the Yellow Jackets back on track in the division race.

Contact Daniel Shirley at 744-4227 or dshirley@macon.com