Dennis Dodd is an idiot. This confirms it.
Leach was fired to keep a huge buyout from kicking in days later.
Tressel was canned/resigned/whatever because of a cover-up.
Petrino's firing had NOTHING to do with what happened on the field.
Those three right there skew the statistics dramatically since one had his team in multiple BCS bowls and the other two weren't exactly chopped liver.
Chizik's record is inflated by one super season; subtract that one 14-0 record and he's a .500 coach. Add in his 5-19 Iowa State record, which is about what he was, and the fact is he never should have been hired in the first place, something even Auburn fans were saying at the time.
And Brown was fired because of the assumption Saban would take the job.
Furthermore, so what on the records? A coach who goes 9-4 every single year on average (so he can offset a 12-2 with a 7-5) has a winning pct of .692. It's not that difficult to go 9-4 in a tough conference - Houston Nutt did close to that or better seven times in 12 years in the SEC for Pete's sake. All you have to do in the SEC to pull this off is play a bunch of cream puffs for your out of conference schedule and go 4-0, go .500 in your division, and win your bowl game. That's a 9-4 record right there.
Think how easy it is. Say you get UK AND Vandy as two of your east games and then beat the Mississippi teams. Despite not being very good most years you now have eight wins. Recruit a little talent, get a couple of breaks, and you're a 10-2 football coach in the SEC title game.
Even in the Pac 12 this shouldn't be very difficult. The only annual powers there are Oregon, USC, and Stanford. UCLA is hit or miss and Oregon State is only good about every five years or so. Washington is hit or miss and Wazzu, man.....
Besides, the SUGGESTION being made is that time shrinks and these ultra-successful coaches are fired.
Look at the previous years, though, that are not mentioned:
2008: Phil Fulmer (.745, national title) and Tommy Tuberville (.680, unbeaten season in 2004)
2007: Houston Nutt (.609), Jeff Bower (.589)
2006: Larry Coker (.800, national title, lost another in overtime)
2005: Gary Barnett (.563, one Big 12 title and top five ranking, forced out)
2004: Ron Zook (.621), David Cutcliffe (.602, 4-1 bowl record, one losing season)
2003: Frank Solich (.753, one national title game appearance, fired after a 9-3 season)
2002: R.C. Slocum (.720)
2001: Bob Davie (.583)
2000: Jim Donnan (.678), John Cooper (.715)
1999: no coaches with significant records fired
1998: Terry Bowden (.731), 21-game unbeaten streak, defending division champions
1997: Danny Ford (he had a losing record at Arkansas, but he did win a national title at Clemson)
I would note that UNLIKE Leach, Petrino, or Tressel, the only one of these you can say was perhaps forced out by scandal was Barnett (at least implicitly).
Leach's winning pct was not even in the same zip code as Fulmer, Coker, Solich or Slocum. Sure Brown won at a .766 clip, but he couldn't beat Bob Stoops and then the Aggies left and reduced his number of big games.
I'm sorry, but Dodd is creating a narrative that again doesn't exist.
