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That’s the dangerous terrain NU Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst must navigate as he decides on what to do with his football program.

For all the Husker football cornerstones that have been upended in recent times — the nine-win streak, the bowl streak and now 15 years without a conference title — woe be the A.D. under whom the 340-game sellout run stops.

This football season and this head coach have brought us to this point.

Between the current states of apathy and anger among fans, how does NU “sell” football if coach Bo Pelini returns? The phone calls and texts I got from friends and contacts of all ages Saturday night tell me it won’t be easy.

As always, a few facts are in order:

Nebraska plays in arguably the weakest division in what inarguably is the least-respected Power Five conference. The Huskers, with a seventh-year head coach, have fallen to no better than third in the Big Ten West.

It may be fourth place out of seven after Friday’s trip to Iowa, where the Hawkeyes were snorting angrily Saturday after a heartbreaking loss to Wisconsin.

The West Division programs that have moved past NU with back-to-back wins in the series are Wisconsin, with a second-year head coach and the shakiest quarterback play ever on a nine-win team; and Minnesota, with a fourth-year head coach who has had to work around a major health issue and recruit to facilities that are worse than some high schools.

Doubly troubling is that the Badgers and Gophers not only beat the Huskers, but beat them up, too, with Nebraska’s old power football style.

I hear Eichorst is a huge fan of “Moneyball” and the assorted metrics some use to try to game the competition. But you don’t need a computer screen full of formulas to figure out Nebraska’s current approach won’t lead to championships in this setting.

Regarding Eichorst, we’re forced to say “I hear” a lot because of his ultra-guarded management style, and the layer of old chums he has hired — also not available for interviews — to insulate him.

When he was the A.D. at Miami, his nickname was “The Invisible Man.” The past three weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time around Wisconsin, which is where Eichorst grew up and used to work under Barry Alvarez. Folks there wryly ask how we get along with “Silent Shawn.”

Eichorst emerged for one of the few times last May at the Big Ten administrative meetings, covered by The World-Herald, to say this about Pelini:

“He’s a good ball coach, a good person, he’s serious about his craft and he’s very disciplined. We’re lucky to have him at Nebraska.”

In August, in Eichorst’s first sit-down with any group of reporters after nearly two years on the job, he said: “I hope I don’t come off as someone not willing to share information or someone who has a grand plan behind the scenes.”

Too late on that one, though we were warned.

When hired, Eichorst said his goal was in five years for hardly anyone to know his name. For Chancellor Harvey Perlman, selecting that style of leader was no surprise after dealing with the egomania of a former athletic director who shall not be named.

That said, I’ve never seen effective leadership from someone who burrows into his office and sets up policies that almost banish communication — especially in running a high-profile athletic department, and even more so at straight-shooting Nebraska.

You can’t lead from behind or the dark.

Eichorst told us in August that he has strong relationships with his head coaches. That is counter to what coaches have told me and many others. Some say they can’t directly get a meeting with him. One said the number of books Eichorst has assigned coaches to read has outnumbered his in-person visits to that sport.

Also from that preseason interview, Eichorst said football was “going in the right direction,” and he expressed confidence that the sellout streak will carry on.

What does Eichorst, at $1.03 million a year, say now?

Who knows? He didn’t respond to text messages Saturday or Sunday seeking comment, nor did his $132,000-a-year-aide who handles interview requests.

This isn’t media whining, folks. I don’t pout over being stood up by administrators or coaches. But our job is to answer questions of readers, fans and ticket-buyers — the “stockholders” of the program. The only frustration is the stone-walling on information you deserve.

Like whom Eichorst would hire if he makes a change? And who would he know to hire?

He has hired a women’s rifle coach at Nebraska. Ten days after he was hired at Miami, the Hurricanes picked Jim Larranaga as men’s basketball coach, so he probably had some hand in that.

Also, at Nebraska, in 2014, Eichorst extended Pelini’s contract by one year after the football team went 4-3 down the stretch, but did nothing to the contract of Tim Miles, who led the men’s basketball team to the NCAA tournament for the first time in 16 years.

So what lies ahead? We’ll have to see what the man behind the curtain comes up with — and if he is standing there with a handful of tickets

.Barfknecht: Is Husker sellout streak the next cornerstone to tumble?