Go down the list of college football powerhouses. When they hire the right guy, change happens quickly. If not the first two seasons, then definitely in Year 3.

Bob Stoops. Jim Tressel. Urban Meyer. Pete Carroll. Chip Kelly. James Franklin. Chris Petersen. Mark Richt. They jolted the culture. They got results. Nebraska shouldn’t be different.

For 40 years — 1962-2001 — NU didn’t just lead the country in wins, it had 44 more wins than its closest pursuer, Penn State. Don’t tell me they’re no longer capable of competing with Wisconsin and Ohio State.

Start accepting weekly embarrassments and it’s a sure path to long-term mediocrity.

But there are no easy answers here. Out on Stadium Drive, I came upon five guys discussing the future:

“There’s no way he’s back,” Kyle Kruse said. “I think that’s the final straw. Our worry is we have a chance at these four-star and five-star recruits.”

“So Northern Illinois comes in, we had the 29th-ranked recruiting class, they had the 110th-ranked recruiting class,” Taber Randolph said. “Who cares about a recruiting class if our coach can’t coach worth a (expletive).”