On the list of fairly meaningless things that coaches say and sports writers ask about, “We want to get off to a fast start” and “How important is it to get off to a fast start?” are probably top five, maybe top three. Off the top of my head, I’m not sure what else is up there, but I’ve also heard it asked of a basketball coach or player whose team just lost its first game of the season, “Was it good to get it (i.e., the first loss) out of the way?”

I remember when I covered the Falcons a few years back, I once asked a coach about how a player had handled being cut. I didn’t think this was an entirely dumb question – I’d think someone could accept the news in a variety of ways, and I thought it might be a humanizing detail – but the coach said something like, with equal degrees of sarcasm and terseness, “He was really happy. He told me, make sure you tell Ken how happy I am.”

Anyway, all this to say I was a little pained this week to invoke that line of questioning this week, although I believe I refrained from actually asking, “Do you want to get off to a fast start?”

Better first-quarter play is very much on the mind of Georgia Tech coaches (and hence, players) this week.

North Carolina yards per play in the first quarter: 7.4.

In final three quarters: 5.2.

Tech yards per play in first quarter: 2.8

In final three quarters: 5.8

Duke yards per play in the first quarter: 6.1

In final three quarters: 3.0

Tech yards per play in the first quarter: 7.2

In final three quarters: 6.0.

Fairly convincing, I’d think. UNC’s three touchdown drives in its first four possessions are what stick out. The Tar Heels played with such efficiency and had the Tech defense on its heels (no pun intended), it appeared. (Granted, UNC is due some credit.)

“We’ve got to learn to come out with a little more intensity to start with,” coach Paul Johnson said Monday. “We’ve got enough guys that have played enough football – they know what it’s about. We’ve got to do a better job as coaches of getting them to that point where they know, when we start the game, we can’t afford to get behind in the games.”

It would seem to be critically important Thursday night. Permitting the Virginia Tech offense, which, as best we can tell, is not terribly effective, to move the ball and score early, or allowing a special-teams or defensive touchdown early on would be, to say the least, undermining.

Put it this way: When Tech fell behind 13-0 and 20-7 to North Carolina, the Jackets' chances of winning fell to maybe 30 percent. (just throwing a number out there) If the same were to happen against Virginia Tech, I’d say it’d be more like 15 percent because of the Hokies' defense.

An aside: Interestingly, the Hokies will have a fully-padded practice Wednesday before flying down to Atlanta, according to Norm Wood’s very insightful story for the Daily Press, in which defensive coordinator Bud Foster went after schedule makers and ESPN and bemoaned the challenge of playing the Jackets on a short week. He called it "totally absurd, ludicrous" to play a game with four days of prep time and not looking out for the safety of the players.

Georgia Tech, meanwhile, is having a walkthrough on Wednesday and didn’t go in full pads once this week. I imagine coach Frank Beamer would much rather not go in full pads and then travel, but believes it necessary to get the defense ready to face the option.

I think the two sides are in different circumstances, so it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison in terms of preparation, but it’s obviously a big difference, having a walk-through on Wednesday and then kicking back at the hotel vs. a full practice and then getting on an airplane.

At any rate, back to the point. Getting an early lead against Georgia Tech, perhaps give the offense some confidence and force the Jackets to come back against the No. 5 defense in the country would probably be the Hokies’ preferred recipe for coming out of Bobby Dodd with a win.

Johnson also said he thought that quarterback Vad Lee let his emotions get the better of him at the start of the North Carolina game. Against the Tar Heels, he started out 0-for-3 passing with a fumble before leading Tech’s first touchdown drive. He completed seven of his last 10 passes. Against Duke, he started 1-for-6 with an interception (and a touchdown) before finishing 7-for-10 with three touchdowns.

“He’s got to come out more focused, that’s all,” quarterbacks and B-backs coach Bryan Cook said.

A-backs coach Lamar Owens called getting a team properly dialed in "hard to put your finger on," a matter of finding the right balance of raising excitement level and emotion while maintaining focus. As coaches are wont to say, if it was easy to do, everybody would be doing it. I don't think it's a matter of the right pep talk. Regardless, Owens said coaches need to help players find the right ratio “where we can maximize opportunities early and it doesn’t take us into the second quarter or the second half to finally get into a groove and get into a rhythm where we’re playing the type of football that we know we should be playing at Georgia Tech.”

I'd think it wouldn't be a problem Thursday, as you'd suspect that playing a team that has beaten you three years in a row might help you adopt the proper mindset. But crazy things happen. We'll see Thursday.