Plenty to motivate Tech

After Saturday's ACC championship game victory over Boston College, Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer began his press conference with the usual congratulatory platitudes.

Then he quickly shifted his focus to the Orange Bowl. The game, Jan. 1 against Cincinnati, is 24 days away, but Beamer understands the importance of winning it, not only for his program but for the ACC.

The Hokies have enjoyed unprecedented success under Beamer, who is in his 22nd season in Blacksburg. With a 9-4 record, they are in position for their eighth 10-win season in the past 10, including six in the past seven and five straight. They are making their 16th consecutive bowl appearance, and Beamer is 6-9 in bowls.

Building Tech's program made Beamer rich. His salary for this year is about $2 million, and he earns a $50,000 bonus for winning the ACC and $75,000 for playing in the Orange Bowl. His contract includes no bonus for winning the game, though he certainly needs no financial carrot.

The grim results of his recent postseason games are motivation enough. The Hokies are 1-4 in their past five bowls and 0-4 in big-four bowls -- now known as the Bowl Championship Series -- dating to their first appearance in one of these games, a win over Texas in the 1995 Sugar Bowl. They lost to Kansas 24-21 in last season's Orange Bowl.

"The thing I've learned and these guys have learned: Those things stay with you a little while," Beamer said. "Alumni don't forget those things real quick. But we didn't either."

With three ACC championships, the Hokies have been the class of the conference since they joined in 2004. But the ACC's national reputation remains shaky because of a 1-9 record in BCS games -- the worst of the six BCS conferences. The ACC's only win came in the 1999 national championship, in which Florida State beat Tech.

Carrying the responsibility of reversing their league's fortunes, the Hokies enter the Orange Bowl with a three-game winning streak and a No. 21 national ranking. But the No. 12 Bearcats (11-2) are a formidable opponent. The Big East champions, winners of six straight, are in the midst of the best season in school history. One of their losses came in the season's second week, at Oklahoma, which will play Florida in the BCS championship game.

Brian Kelly, 47, is in his second season as the Bearcats' coach after spending three years at Central Michigan. He led Cincinnati to a 10-3 record last season, its most wins since 1951. Kelly is continuing the success started by Mark Dantonio, who coached the Bearcats from 2004-06 and led them to two winning seasons before leaving for Michigan State. In the 21 seasons before Dantonio took over, the Bearcats finished with a winning record just six times.

Tech and Cincinnati share little history. The Hokies are 4-4 all-time against the Bearcats and have played them just once since 1995, a 29-13 win in Blacksburg in 2006. But it was Tech's move from the Big East to the ACC that enabled Cincinnati to jump in 2005 from Conference-USA, a non-BCS league, to the Big East.

This Orange Bowl matchup seems somewhat ironic because Tech originally was scheduled to play at Cincinnati in next season's opener. But the Hokies got a chance to fill that slot with a to-be-determined Southeastern Conference team -- possibly Alabama -- in Atlanta's Georgia Dome. So their trip to Cincinnati was shifted to the 2012 opener.

Regardless of who the Hokies played in this bowl, their coaches already planned to alter parts of their preparation. Defensive coordinator Bud Foster said they began discussing these changes -- perhaps more practices or an earlier curfew -- after last season's Orange Bowl. In the past, the coaches have referred to the bowl as a reward for their players. Maybe because all of them grimace at Tech's recent bowl struggles, none used that word Saturday.

"We understand that this season has been an unbelievable experience -- gratifying, satisfying," offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring said. "But this season is not over."