Former Tennessee head coach Derek Dooley, the SEC’s favorite orange pants-wearing punching bag, hasn’t spoken much on his ill-fated tenure with the Vols since leaving the program after being fired just before the end of his third season.

That changed Thursday evening, as Dooley joined Clay Travis’ Outkick the Show to talk about his time on Rocky Top after compiling a 15-21 mark with Tennessee from 2010-12.

Known mostly for his failures, attire and interesting press conference demeanor, Dooley — now an assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys — is viewed by many Tennessee fans as the reason the program slipped so far in recent seasons.

“Maybe I’m a curse to Tennessee,” Dooley joked.

His comments seemed particularly true as he noted his greatest victory came at the Vols’ expense.

“The best win I’ve been apart of was our first win of the SEC Championship at LSU (in 2001 against Tennessee),” Dooley said. “I was a part of a lot of  Tennessee defeats.”

Dooley is of course referencing his role as an assistant to then-LSU head coach Nick Saban, who led the 8-3 Tigers to a 31-20 upset victory over No. 2-ranked Tennessee in the 2001 SEC Championship Game. That loss spoiled the Vols’ chance to play Miami in the Rose Bowl for the 2001 BCS National Title.

While Dooley’s involvement with LSU may have led to his greatest victory, the school also played a role in arguably his most gut-wrenching defeat as Tennessee’s coach.

On the road at No. 10 LSU in 2010, Tennessee stopped the Tigers on the game-defining play, thanks to an LSU mishap. The only problem was the Vols had 13 players on the field for a play that would have required none to get a stop. Tennessee was flagged for the error, and LSU capitalized by scoring the winning touchdown on the final play.

Travis asked Dooley what happened on the play:

“It was a coaching screw up,” Dooley said. “There’s no question.”

Following the 2011 season, defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox left the team for the same role at Washington. The move led to arguably Dooley’s biggest off-the-field mistake at Tennessee — hiring Alabama linebacker coach Sal Sunseri as his defensive coordinator for the 2012 season. The Vols finished that season with the No. 87 rushing defense, No. 107 scoring defense, No. 110 total defense and No. 114 passing defense in the nation.

Dooley openly discussed how difficult it was to hire a coach to take that job, as the support from Tennessee’s new athletic director Dave Hart wasn’t fully there and candidates knew that.

“Things were hostile at the time. I went after a lot of coaches,” Dooley said. “They’d say ‘I’d love to work for you but ….’

“This isn’t anything against Dave; (former AD) Mike (Hamilton) was invested in me. That isn’t to say (Hart) wasn’t invested in me, but when there’s a change, you better watch out. The change at AD, going into my third year, (scared away) candidates.”

Dooley revealed he talked to now-Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele about the position. Steele’s Clemson defense had just allowed 70 points to West Virginia in the 2012 Orange Bowl, and Dooley knew hiring him would have been a tough sell to Vols fans.

Despite Tennessee’s defensive struggles in 2012, the offense kept the team in a number of games. Dooley noted that the Vols scored 44 in a loss at Georgia, 31 in a loss at Mississippi State, 35 in a loss at South Carolina and 48 in a loss at home to Missouri.

“I bet you can go in the annals of the history of the SEC and that’s never happened,” Dooley said on losing despite scoring so many points against SEC defenses — many of which were road performances.

Yet another low point in recent Tennessee history came under Dooley’s watch, as the Vols lost to Kentucky for the first time in 26 years in 2011. Dooley put that loss on his shoulders, saying he knew something was up in the locker room before kickoff.

“I was the sole reason for that loss,” Dooley said. “I could feel we weren’t ready to play.”

Of course Tennessee fans also place blame on Dooley for letting talent level drop. Dooley defended his recruiting at various times during the interview.

“What do they think, I just sat on my ass? … Our first two recruiting classes were pretty damn salty,” he said.

Tennessee’s 51-year streak of producing an NFL Draft pick ended in 2015. Dooley had no answers for that but said he helped Tennessee produce more NFL players during his time than had been there when he arrived.

“The starting data point that everybody loves to use is NFL (players). That’s the starting data point. The roster I inherited we had three to four NFL guys and when I left I think there were 11,” Dooley said. “That’s one indicator. Now, I don’t know another data point that you could look at objectively … but I do know this: You can’t win a championship in that league without high-caliber NFL players. You can’t …. To win a championship, you have to have a lot of things work.”

That’s one thing Dooley is right about. Unfortunately for Tennessee fans, he didn’t seem to understand what any of those “things” were during his time in Knoxville.

The full interview can be found here: