5. John L. Smith

Forbes.com: College Football Coaches Who Should Be Fired In 2012

Team: Arkansas
Record: 4-6
2012 Record: 4-6
2011 Salary: N/A*

It's difficult to assign Smith too much blame for Arkansas' pitiful performance this season because he was thrust into the interim head coach role with little time to prepare. But Smith was always more of a stopgap than a longterm solution, and the Razorbacks - ranked in the top ten entering the season - have done no favors to his hopes of hanging onto the job in 2013. Kudos to Smith for his efforts, but it's time for Arkansas to find a coach for the future. * Smith is in his first year at Arkansas. His 2012 salary is $850,000. (AP Photo)

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College Football... We've selected the ten college football coaches who most ought to be fired based on recent performance and how much it would cost to buyout their remaining contracts. We also factored in each school's financial situation, which is why Tennessee's Derek Dooley leads the list while Maryland's Randy Edsall is found toward the end.

With the exception of Arkansas interim head coach John L. Smith, we also gave first-year head coaches a pass. It's difficult to judge a coach on a single season's record, especially when he doesn't have a chance to recruit his own players. So while coaches like Weis and Southern Mississippi's Ellis Johnson are rapidly losing fan support at their respective schools, short tenures keep them off our list. (AP)

Note: USA Today's college football coach salary database was used to determine 2011 salaries where applicable.

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1. Derek Dooley Team: Tennessee
Record: 15-20
2012 Record: 4-6
2011 Salary: $2.3 million

Rumors have been circling for weeks that Dooley's days with Tennessee are numbered and the school is just waiting til season's end to dispose of the coach. His time at Tennessee has been all but a complete disaster by SEC standards. He hasn't defeated a single ranked opponent and has just four SEC victories since taking over in 2010. Dooley's buyout is a hefty $5.6 million, but Tennessee is the sort of school that can afford to pay it and move on to someone better. (Getty Images)

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2. Frank Spazian... Team: Boston College
Record: 22-27
2012 Record: 2-8
2011 Salary: $1.1 million

It's almost a wonder that Spaziani is still the head coach at BC. The Eagles made two consecutive conference championship games in 2007 and 2008, but their play has consistently declined since Spaziani's arrival in 2009. Spaziani's BC team has never beaten a ranked opponent and it is currently on the verge of making history: the Eagles haven't lost nine games in a season since 1980. (AP Photo)

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3. Danny Hope Team: Purdue
Record: 20-27
2012 Record: 4-6
2011 Salary: $925,000

Despite some glimmers of success, like taking undefeated Ohio State into overtime earlier this season, Purdue just hasn't been competitive in the Big Ten under Hope's leadership. And while Purdue football isn't a financial powerhouse, buying out the four remaining years on Hope's contract isn't very expensive by Big Ten standards - Hope had the lowest salary of any Big Ten coach in 2011. (AP Photos)

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4. Gene Chizik Team: Auburn
Record: 32-18
2012 Record: 2-8
2011 Salary: $3.5 million

Chizik's firing would seem surprising given that he won the BCS National Championship just two seasons ago. But after losing Cam Newton to the 2011 NFL draft Chizik's team slipped to 8-5, and when offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn left to coach Arkansas State this season Auburn promptly got off to a 2-8 start. That's not a good look for one of the sport's highest-paid coaches. It would cost Auburn around $7.5 million to buyout Chizik's contract, and we say it's a price worth paying to get out of the SEC's cellar. (AP Photo)

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5. John L. Smith Team: Arkansas
Record: 4-6
2012 Record: 4-6
2011 Salary: N/A*

It's difficult to assign Smith too much blame for Arkansas' pitiful performance this season because he was thrust into the interim head coach role with little time to prepare. But Smith was always more of a stopgap than a longterm solution, and the Razorbacks - ranked in the top ten entering the season - have done no favors to his hopes of hanging onto the job in 2013. Kudos to Smith for his efforts, but it's time for Arkansas to find a coach for the future. * Smith is in his first year at Arkansas. His 2012 salary is $850,000. (AP Photo)

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6. Jeff Tedford Team: California
Record: 82-56
2012 Record: 3-8
2011 Salary: $2.3 million
Tedford is in his 11th season with the Golden Bears, and the team has been competitive for most of that time - just not recently. Cal has had trouble with the class of the Pac-12 and, prior to taking down 25th-ranked UCLA this year, hadn't defeated a ranked opponent since 2009. Rather than waiting to see if Tedford can turn back time to Cal's 2006 conference-winning season, it may be time the school paid the buyout (around $5.4 million) and moved on. (AP Photo)

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7. Ron English Team: Eastern Michigan
Record: 9-37
2012 Record: 1-9
2011 Salary: $340,000

English is in his fourth season as head coach of Eastern Michigan and has a winning percentage under 20% in that time. All of the losing isn't English's fault because he inherited a team that just wasn't very good. In fact, last year's 6-6 season was reason to celebrate because the Eagles hadn't won six games since 1995. But after a 1-9 start this season it appears English just might not be the man for the job. (AP Photo)

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8. Jon Embree Team: Colorado
Record: 4-19
2012 Record: 1-9
2011 Salary: $725,000

Embree is another coach who may not deserve all the blame for his team's struggles. He took over in Colorado the year it moved to the Pac-12, an environment it's clearly not built to compete in. But the fact remains that Embree has won just four games since taking over last season, and several of this year's losses were to first-year coaches. Some might argue that Embree deserves more time, but a staggering 48 points allowed per game is plenty reason for Colorado to ask him to spend that time elsewhere. (AP Photo)

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9. Randy Edsall Team: Maryland
Record: 6-16
2012 Record: 4-6
2011 Salary: $2 million

This is where buyouts and budgets begin to make things really tricky. In 2011 Maryland brought in Edsall to replace reigning ACC coach of the year Ralph Freidgen, who went 9-4 with the Terps the year before. Edsall's new team went 2-10 last year and are not playing much better this season. The trouble is that firing Edsall would cost Maryland around $8 million, a lot to pay for a cash-strapped school that has cut sports programs just to get under budget. Then again, leaving Edsall out there for four more years may all but cripple what little profit Maryland football can still generate. (AP Photo)

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10. Kirk Ferentz Team: Iowa
Record: 100-73
2012 Record: 4-6
2011 Salary: $3.8 million

Unlike Edsall, Ferentz has a long and relatively solid history at Iowa. Like Edsall, however, Ferentz's team has really struggled recently. There are similarities off the field as well, as Ferentz's massive contract - he's signed through 2019 with $27 million yet to be paid - make it difficult to get rid of the under-performing coach. In fact, firing Ferentz may be damn near impossible: Iowa would have to pay him around $20 million not to coach. It means that Iowa would lose about 5% of its annual revenue through 2019, but fans forced to watch the Hawkeyes recently will likely say it's a price worth paying. (AP Photo)

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The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Comcast.
More from Forbes... Click here to see college football's greediest coaches 2011.