The last 12 years have been rough for fans of the Tennessee Vols.

Actually, the last 15 have been rough, dating back to Tennessee's 5-6 season in 2005 (which was Phillip Fulmer's first losing season as the Vols head coach).

It was the beginning of the end for Fulmer, though he was able to lead Tennessee to an SEC Championship game appearance in 2007, before "stepping down" at the end of the 2008 season.

The events that followed Fulmer's dismissal have been well documented by now. There was Lane Kiffin's one year stint as the Vols' head coach, which ended with riots after the young California native bolted for USC a month before National Signing Day.

Then there was the panic hire of Derek Dooley, which resulted in three straight losing seasons. And then there was Butch Jones, who showed promise, but ultimately failed to live up to the hype.

Most fans have their theories on why each coach failed. But the best way to find out what exactly went wrong with each coach is to ask someone who played for each coach.

And that's what The Athletic's Joe Rexrode did this week.

Rexrode spoke with former Vols defensive tackle Daniel Hood for a story that centered on Dooley's time at UT (which is great and you should check out). In the midst of the story, Hood dished on each coach that he played for (as an aside, Hood was also recruited by Fulmer….though Fulmer's staff eventually stopped recruiting him).

Hood said that Kiffin probably had the most complete program of the three coaches, noting his passion and football intelligence. The problem was Kiffin's lack of maturity (no surprise there).

"At the Chick-Fil-A Bowl we had curfews of 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. because that’s what Lane wanted to do as well", said Hood.

(The Vols lost that bowl game matchup 37-14 to Virginia Tech.)

Hood suggested that Dooley was the most professional of the coaches (again, not shocking…he was a former attorney).

"The most professional, NFL-style coach, but the biggest mistake he made was not putting together a good strength program. We were slow as a team", said Hood of Dooley.

As for Butch?

Hood's description of his program isn't shocking, either.

"He lacked the sophisticated intricacies of the X’s and O’s. His thing was to out-passion and out-effort people", explained Hood.

According to Hood, things went down hill for Butch after he lost strength coach Dave Lawson.

Looking at Hood's comments, it's obvious that Tennessee tried to hire a very different coach with each hire. They went from older (Fulmer) to energetic (Kiffin) to professional (Dooley) to passionate (Jones).

(Fortunately for the Vols, they finally landed on someone who can simply be described as a "football coach" when they hired Jeremy Pruitt in late 2017.)

Something else that Hood noted that I found interesting was his take on Dooley's decision to hire Sal Sunseri as UT's defensive coordinator in 2012 (which was the achilles' heel of an otherwise very good offensive team).

Hood suggested that linebackers coach Lance Thompson should've been named Tennessee's defensive coordinator when Justin Wilcox left.

Had that move happened, Tennessee probably wins eight or nine games (or more) in 2012.

And who knows how things play out from there — maybe the Vols are in an even worse spot than they are today….because Dooley definitely wasn't the answer for UT.

Featured image via Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports/Getty