Most of those programs have ZERO hope of doing any better than the coach they have. SMU scored a major coup getting June Jones out of Hawaii - in a town dominated by openly-pro sports, SMU has zero hopes. East Carolina? South Florida? Central Mich? Syracuse ("We'll pay 13 basketballers, but we can't afford to pay 85 footballers") Orangemen? These will always be 3rd- and 4th-rate programs with an occasional upward flash. Cal, like Stanford, can get the same push occasionally, but they'll have more consecutive decades at the bottom than years at the top.
Only CU has an history of football excellence.
All we need to do is keep on this same course, and we can sink to 3rd- and 4th tier, though, and drag down every coaching alumni CU hires. Give Embree a chance for a later life of success - fire him now. Give him a platform to move away from, rather than a longer history of career defeat.