A head football coaches' job is a stressful one. You can perform at the highest level for years and years and yet, with a couple bad seasons and you're forced out like your job never mattered. It happens every year at the college level. Last year, 11 head coaches were fired during and after the college football season. In 2013, 13 head coaches were let go. This year, 14 coaches have been released (with the possibility of a few more being let go after the bowl season). While that turnover is scary to think about, the disheartening figure is that some of these coaches were good. Really good. In fact, four of them were some of the better coaches in their program's history.

Ruffin McNeill:

Ruffin McNeill was fired from East Carolina University a few days ago, just after his team finished the 2015 season with 5 wins and 7 loses. While a losing season should concern a program that's had success like ECU, this one season doesn't tell the whole story. In his six seasons as the head coach at ECU, McNeill had an overall record of 42-34. That's average of 7 wins and just over 5 losses per season. That may seem like a pretty average record but at a school like East Carolina, which doesn't have a storied football program (an overall record of 426-38-11, an overall win percentage of .525), a coach that averages 7 wins per season and has a winning percentage of .553 isn't too bad. And when you look at the three coaches who came before him, whose records were 38-27, 3-20, and 61-55, getting rid of McNeill makes even less sense. The teams he lost to this year went a combined 59-26 and are all bowl eligible (10-3 Florida, 9-2 Navy, 8-4 South Florida, 7-5 Cincinnati and 6-6 Connecticut). Ruffin McNeill was one of the better ECU coaches in the past 50 years and its a shame one bad season cost him his job.

Dan McCarney:

Dan McCarney was let go from the University of North Texas this season after an 0-5 start to the season and a blowout loss to a lower division opponent. All things considered, McCarney's career as the head coach of the Mean Green was pretty lousy from a pure numbers aspect, going 22-32 in 5 seasons at the helm of UNT.The problem is, this move was made less than two years removed from UNT's 9-4 2013 campaign in which they posted their best record since moving to Division 1 FBS football, reaching their first bowl game since 2004 and winning their first bowl game since 2002. Furthermore, the Mean Green haven't been very competitive since moving up to the FBS level 14 seasons ago. Their overall record since jumping up to the FBS level is 65-117. Their winningest coach in that time went 34-39 and their worst 6-37. I get wanting to improve and make your team more competitive, but at this point in time, with all the jobs that have opened, it seems like at best, the school can make a lateral hire and at worst, set their team back a lot.

Mike London:

Mike London is a lot like Dan McCarney. He was hired at the University of Virginia in 2010. UVA has always been a difficult place to coach. Competing in the ACC with traditional football powers like Virginia Tech, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Clemson, Virginia has always been more of an academically (and occasionally, basketball) focused school than a football powerhouse. As such, the school's academic budget, especially what it contributes to football, is far lower than many teams in the ACC and that fact is pretty obvious when you watch the Cavaliers play the upper echelon schools. London has followed in the path of his Virginia predecessors: He has a good season every now and then, sandwiched in between 4 or 5 win seasons. After a pretty bad 2 win 2013 season, it looked like things might've been turning around at UVA before he was given the pink slip. Fortunately for UVA, they were one of the few teams to upgrade this year and hire a pretty decent coach in Bronco Mendenhall.

Mark Richt:

And here of course is the worst firing of the 2015 season. Maybe of the 21st century. Arguably all time. Mark Richt was fired by the University of Georgia after 15 seasons as the head coach. In that time, Richt led the Bulldogs to 145 wins (and only 51 loses). In that time, the Bulldogs also won seven SEC Eastern Division Championships, 2 SEC Championships, had a 9-5 bowl record, and competed in three BCS Bowl Games (winning two). Richt is one of the 10 most successful active coaches in Division 1 FBS football. In addition to being the second best coach in the long, rich UGA football history, Richt has long been one of the cheapest coaches when you compare his resume and salary to coaches on a similar level. The biggest problem with this move however is that he was fired and replaced with Kirby Smart, the current defensive coordinator at Alabama. Yes, one of the best coaches of all time and a future hall of famer was replaced by an assistant with no head coaching experience. In my opinion, this is the worst fire of the year and will set Georgia back to one of the lower teams in the SEC.

This trend of firing the head coach every year they fail to be a top 2 team needs to be stopped. From the NBA to the NFL to NCAA football, coaches are being fired at an alarming rate by programs desperate to become an elite program. The problem is, players don't like coach turnover. Many times, a player committing to a time is contingent on the coach being there. When the guy that brought them in is fired, the player(s) often look for a quick way out. In addition, new coaches usually bring in new assistants and new schemes. This new schemes often take a year or two to really catch hold and become effective, at which point (following two disappointing seasons) the coach has already lost favor and is on the way out. Today's fast paced society has changed the way coaches do their job. From recruiting to PR to public opinion, coaches live and die by social media and the fast paced world today.

Maybe the higher ups in sports organizations should wait a little longer and give coaches the chance to succeed before they're shoved out the door. After all, the years of hard work these coaches put in is worth more than 140 characters and a kick to the backside.