FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- If winning games is the bottom line, no senior class in Virginia Tech football history can touch the bunch that will be parting ways following Thursday's Orange Bowl.

Anyone choosing to contest that statement obviously hasn't perused the four-year ledger sheet of Tech's 2007 senior class. The numbers provide undisputable evidence. And numbers don't lie, right?

Check out these figures:

Tech has won 42 of 52 games the past four years. That's two more wins than the 2002 class, which was 40-10. That group, of course, had a lot of help from Michael Vick, who keyed the Hokies to consecutive 11-1 seasons in 1999 and 2000.

Tech has won 10 or more games the past four seasons -- a program first. Only two other teams in the country -- longtime national heavyweights Southern California and Texas -- have turned the same trick.

A victory over Kansas in Dolphin Stadium on Thursday night would give Tech its first 12-victory season in history.

Add it all up and there's little wonder as to why longtime Tech coach Frank Beamer must shudder at the thought of watching this group walk out the door a last time.

"These guys have meant a lot to Virginia Tech; they've meant a lot to this football program," Beamer said. "There's no question about the athletic ability, but the thing I think about most with this senior class is they just like to play. They compete; they like challenges."

The senior class, a 20-member group that includes 10 starters, embarked on its run of success in 2004. The timing couldn't have been any more impeccable for Tech, considering that was the same year the school moved from the Big East to the ACC. The Hokies won the ACC title their first season in the league, then did it again this year. Tech has basically owned the ACC, winning 27 of 32 conference games, including a 15-1 mark on the road.

"I think the way we've been able to win on the road says a lot about this senior class," Beamer said. "If something is not supposed to happen, they're pretty good at making it happen."

In more perfect timing, the four-year roll came right on the heels of a splintered 2003 season that Beamer would just soon forget. That's the year in which a very talented Tech club, including such high NFL draft picks as cornerback DeAngelo Hall, tailback Kevin Jones and center Jake Grove, totally imploded down the stretch. After starting the season 6-0 and climbing to third in the nation, the Hokies lost five of its final seven games. It was easily the most underachieving club in Blacksburg in years.

"You could see they had so much talent, it was just something that went wrong," senior flanker Eddie Royal said. "We saw that and we knew we just had to come together as a family. You could tell that once you pulled together as a family that we had enough talent to go out there and play with anybody.

"But we had a pair of great senior leaders there for us in 2004 -- [quarterback] Bryan Randall on offense and [tackle] Jim Davis on defense. They were two real leaders and competitors, guys you could really learn from how to win and how to carry yourself. It definitely helped us out, and it's a reason why we've had so much success."

Of course, these seniors had some talent, too. It's not inconceivable that as many as 10 members of the class could be selected in April's NFL Draft.

Beamer will be the first to tell you that this game is first, and foremost, about having talented players.

"I don't think you out-coach a lot of people in college football," Beamer said. "I think sometimes you coach a little better than the other, maybe, but you'd better out-recruit them and you'd better have players. And there are a bunch of those in this group right here."