The Kansas University marching band and many other high school bands from Kansas and Missouri perform during the halftime show as part of Band Day on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015 at Memorial Stadium. by Nick Krug

Thursday’s news that former KU baseball standout Matt Baty had been hired to lead the Williams Education Fund included one key quote from athletic director Sheahon Zenger that figures to have a huge impact on the future of Kansas football.

“It’s now time to focus on Memorial Stadium,” Zenger said.

No, Baty will not be the man in charge of remodeling, renovating or even conceptualizing what will go down when KU finally gets around to upgrading its football venue. Heck, most of that is already done as it is, though we’re still not anywhere close to targeting a date or perhaps even a year when that might begin.

But Baty will play a crucial role in organizing some of that and also will handle a lot of the day-to-day goings on within the Williams Fund that will make it possible for Zenger to hire another fund-raiser who will be specifically assigned to football and the Memorial Stadium facelift.

Talk about clearing the deck. It’s a phrase that Zenger has used often during the idle chatter concerning what will happen with Memorial Stadium. First came Rock Chalk Park, then the construction of the McCarthy Hall basketball dorm and the DeBruce Center, which houses James Naismith's original rules of basketball. All were crucial moves that, as Zenger liked to say, cleared the deck for more focus to be put on football.

And, in a sense, the hire of Baty and the coinciding announcement of a national search for a football-specific fund-raiser further clears the deck for real progress to be made.

For starters, there’s so much that goes into running the Williams Fund that it’s difficult for any one person to be committed exclusively to any one task. That often made things difficult because of the importance of men’s basketball but also the great many needs that football is facing. Now, with Baty in place, he will be able to run the ship and offer his expertise in many areas and this new person, whomever it is and whenever he or she may be hired, will be given the freedom to pin his or her ears back and attack the football challenge with ferocious intensity.

I’ve heard that this will not be a small hire and that some of the interested parties form an impressive list. That alone brings an element of excitement to the future of football at KU, which, as you all know, is vital for the long-term success and profitability of the athletic department and, in many ways, the university.

However, clearing the deck — in all senses of that phrase — is only one step on the road to football renovations. Zenger, Baty and whomever this new hire winds up being still will need some help from the football program itself.

Momentum has been another key word popping up around the conversations regarding stadium renovations during the past few years. And while these hires and other moves made by the athletic department have helped pave the way, nothing is likely to be done until that momentum is secured.

And momentum, though officially defined as the impetus of a body resulting from its motion, as well as driving power or strength, may as well be synonymous, at least in this case, with victories. Because without wins there can be no momentum within Kansas football and that’s what makes the upcoming season so important for KU.

Second-year coach David Beaty and the Jayhawks do not have to go 6-6 this year to get things rolling. It would help. But it’s not realistic and not even necessary. They do, however, have to win. And more than once. Last year’s 0-12 season, though difficult for many, was hardly a surprise. But following that up with another dud will not be a good sign for the future nor will it make this new football fund-raiser’s job one worth bragging about.

Win three or four games, however, and then things get interesting. Momentum starts to build and that job becomes not only one to be excited about but also one that might actually produce results.

Time will tell how things play out. But bringing Baty back to KU was a good first step in what figures to be a very interesting big-picture process.