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LINCOLN — Nebraska can.

That’s the message I got from Shawn Eichorst on Sunday afternoon. That’s the message you should cling to during this long, cold winter.

You can be satisfied with good. You can try harder to be great. Nebraska is choosing the latter. If it sounds like something out of a cheesy CEO seminar, so be it.

Eichorst took a remarkable risk in firing Bo Pelini, a man who’d won 71 percent of his games in seven years and endeared himself — win or lose — to a large swath of the fan base. The athletic director may regret it.

But the action itself is reason for the college football world to wake up and take notice again.

No, this isn’t the 1990s anymore. No, Nebraska doesn’t have the biggest weight room or the most experienced coaching staff. It doesn’t have the same advantages with walk-ons or Prop 48s or offensive scheme.

But just because they’re dead-even with Iowa and Minnesota doesn’t mean they’re satisfied there.

“I am not going to lower our standards, and I don’t think Nebraskans want that,” Eichorst said. “Is it a different day (from the ’90s)? Absolutely. It is a different day for everybody.