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Never.
That's how many times Virginia Tech has beaten a top-5 team away from its Blacksburg home. And that streak only got longer in the Orange Bowl on Monday night.
No. 5 Stanford rolled in the second half to beat the 12th-ranked Hokies 40-12, the 23rd straight time that Virginia Tech has faced a team ranked in the top 5 of The Associated Press poll away from home and lost.
The Hokies are 1-27 in those games overall, the lone win coming at home against No. 2 Miami, 31-7 on Nov. 1, 2003.
''You don't want to feel this way again,'' cornerback Jayron Hosley said.
It was a thud of an ending for the Atlantic Coast Conference champions, who broke out all the stops for the Orange Bowl, even going with white jerseys and white pants - the color combination that they donned for wins in the 2008 and 2010 ACC title games, as well as the 2009 Orange Bowl.
Instead, they were awash in crimson - Stanford's primary color - by night's end. The Cardinal led just 13-12 at halftime, then simply dominated from there, the biggest blow being a two-play, 97-yard, 29-second drive that made it a two-touchdown game midway through the third quarter.
''I think they just played better than we did,'' Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said. ''I think they played better offensively as a unit. I think they played better defensively as a unit. And I think they played better on special teams as a unit.''
Andrew Luck's second touchdown pass of the game, a 41-yarder to Coby Fleener with 5:49 left in the third, put Stanford up 26-12 - moments after Stepfan Taylor broke loose on a 56-yard run on the first play after the Cardinal took the ball at their own 3-yard line.
Hokies fans started heading for the exits not long afterward, with good reason.
''I think we kind of helped some of the plays that happened as far as them going up on a lead,'' quarterback Tyrod Taylor said. ''They just outplayed us in all parts of the game today.''
In these sorts of games, that tends to happen to Virginia Tech.
It was one-sided in so many ways, especially after halftime. The Hokies were outgained 534-288 in the game, 336-109 over the final two quarters. Virginia Tech gave up eight sacks, managed only 66 yards rushing on 34 carries and punted eight times - a season high.
Beamer was fully aware of the history against top-5 foes entering the game. He even addressed it in his final pregame news conference Sunday, saying that if they Hokies wanted ''to state that you're one of the top programs in the country, you've got to get your share of wins against a top-5 team - and this is a real, for-real, top-5 team.''
In the end, it was simply too daunting.
''I'm disappointed that we didn't pull our end of the deal for the ACC,'' Beamer said. ''But again, I don't think it was a bad effort. It was just not as good execution as we needed. I don't apologize for the effort.''
He was speaking of Monday's game.
He could have said the same about the season as a whole.
Virginia Tech started 0-2, those losses by a combined eight points: 33-30 to Boise State, 21-16 five days later to lower-division James Madison.
Led by Taylor, the Hokies won 11 straight games after that dismal beginning and thought this might be the chance for that breakthrough top-5 win. Instead, it wound up as the most lopsided defeat Virginia Tech endured since a 48-7 drubbing against LSU in September 2007.
''In a game like this, all you need is a few big plays to separate yourself,'' Hokies flanker Danny Coale said. ''And they made plays.''
