College football coaches jump around from job to job with dizzying frequency, it seems. That’s the nature of the business, and sometimes the timing of it can throw a program a curveball. Sometimes it can even leave a program high and dry, ultimately spinning out of control on a downward path.

Here are a few of those ill-timed departures over the last five years that left programs scrambling for a replacement. Unfortunately, that timeframe leaves out Lane Kiffin’s snubbing of Tennessee prior to the 2010 season. The Vols are still trying to regain their footing. Plus, this doesn’t even count the Mike Price debacle at Alabama from which the Tide has recovered, but it took a while.

John L. Smith, Arkansas: At the top of the list is the scandal that shook the Razorbacks program a few years back. You’ll remember Bobby Petrino was lifting Arkansas to the level of play suitable for SEC powerhouses. Then, he took a little motorcycle ride and things literally spun out of control. His extramarital affair was revealed and Petrino, who was 21-5 over his final two seasons there and brought Arkansas to a No. 3 ranking nationally, was unceremoniously replaced as the Razorbacks head coach for the 2012 season by Smith. That’s another debacle for another time. Suffice it to say that Smith’s personal finances weren’t the only thing he bankrupted. The Razorbacks were 4-8 in his only season there.

Shawn Elliott, South Carolina: For sheer timing of it, this has to be among the weirdest of any time period. Put an asterisk on this one because Elliott was already employed by South Carolina, but the weirdness in timing by which he was elevated to interim head coach is one of the biggest head-scratchers in recent memory. Steve Spurrier, the winningest coach in South Carolina football history, abruptly stepped down in the middle of last season, and Elliott inherited a 2-4 Gamecocks team which had lost all four of its SEC games. Feeling the team needed a new voice to listen to, the 70-year-old Spurrier took his visor and went home.

John Chavis, Texas A&M: Perhaps the circumstances behind the hiring were weirder than the timing of it, although it did go down during LSU’s 2014 Music City Bowl game, so that made it more than a little unusual. While LSU was losing its bowl game to Notre Dame, the Tigers DC had hammered out a deal to be the Aggies’ new guy. Though he didn’t officially sign a contract until the following February, he had already lost confidence in LSU’s administration, claiming they tampered with his contract. The underappreciated veteran coach had a falling out with the administration, and head coach Les Miles was unable to talk the defensive guru into staying at Baton Rouge.

Mike DeBord, Tennessee: More recent ill-timed coaching hires would find that of DeBord to Tennessee to be among them. However, that’s what happens when the coaching carousel never sleeps. With former Tennessee OC Mike Bajakian raising eyebrows by his sudden move to the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers as their quarterbacks coach, Vols head coach Butch Jones went to work to find a suitable replacement. He called on an old friend to fill the void. Jones was hired as an assistant coach under DeBord on the staff of Central Michigan. The coaching brotherhood is a tight-knit group. It has to be with job openings coming and going on an endless cycle.

Karl Dunbar, Alabama: The most recent weirdly timed hire in the coaching ranks, Dunbar comes to Alabama to coach the Tide’s defensive linemen. Head coach Nick Saban plucked Dunbar from the NFL when former Alabama assistant Bo Davis resigned following spring practice amidst allegations of potential recruiting infractions. Dunbar is familiar with how things work in the SEC. He played at LSU before beginning a coaching career that included 11 NFL seasons with six different teams, most recently last season with the Buffalo Bills.