We have to start from somewhere.

The Sudden Appearance of Hope is a book written by Claire North in which a girl, named Hope, is completely unmemorable.

At the age of 16, every single person in her life forgot her. This included her friends and family. Her parents treated her like a stranger when they woke up in the morning and found her in their house. After several years of people forgetting her, even after a few minutes, Hope attempts to take steps to become memorable again. Unfortunately however, Hope wants to take the short cut even though negative consequences could likely result.

The Sudden Appearance of Hope reminds me of Nebraska football.

College football writers have written in greater frequency as time continues to march forward about the increased irrelevance of Nebraska football. The further away from the hallowed “90’s” we go the harder it will be for Nebraska to become relevant again.

To become memorable again.

One of the significant impediments for the current Nebraska Football Program to return to the dominance of yesteryear is unfortunately the Nebraska fan base.

If the Nebraska Football Program was a person who needed to lose weight, the Nebraska fan base would demand that they drink only water and eat only organic “free-range”* fruit smoothies.

If the Nebraska football program was a person who never runs but has signed up for a 5k, the Nebraska fan base would demand he/she go out and run 3.1 miles tomorrow.

If the Nebraska football program was planning on becoming a doctor, the Nebraska fan base would apply for medical school while preparing to graduate high school.

Nebraska fans have been and are continuing to set the program up for failure.

How about this: Instead of demanding Nebraska become the same dominant program from the 1990s, maybe we should start demanding Nebraska become a program that can beat Wisconsin?

Can we start with that?

That should not be too much to ask. After beating Wisconsin more than one time every six years, then we can move to the next step, which is demanding a program that can consistently expect to beat Wisconsin every year.

Stop and think for a moment. Drink a glass of “Reality Juice,” and picture how far the current Nebraska football program is from that simple expectation. Even that standard, expecting to beat Wisconsin every year, appears to be an extremely daunting task.

If expecting to beat Wisconsin is beyond our grasp at this point in time then stop talking about the 90s. Stop demanding a football program from the 90s. Start demanding a football program that can beat Wisconsin.

After we get to that point, then we can start talking about expecting division titles on an annual basis. When that becomes a reality, then it is time to start demanding a football program that should compete for conferences titles and college football playoff births.

If we focus on the steps to get back to relevance and to be memorable again, then maybe in the future a national college football writer will be able to write an article titled, “The Sudden Appearance of Nebraska.”

Until then, lets just try and beat Wisconsin.

*“Free range” was a joke. Take it easy.