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Former Tennessee Vols Football Coach Phillip Fulmer Says Joshua Dobbs Reminds Him of Heath Shuler

By Caleb Calhoun

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Former Tennessee Vols Head Football Coach Phillip Fulmer said if he had to say who Vols Quarterback Joshua Dobbs reminds him of, it would be Heath Shuler.

Most people are already aware that Phil Fulmer has been around the Tennessee Volunteers football program for a while. So if you want to compare certain players to the past, there’s no need for Google.

He is the guy you go to.

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The Vol for Life who coached the football program from 1992 to 2008 was asked in an interview on “Press Row” on 105.1 in Chattanooga who quarterback Joshua Dobbs reminds him of. He went back to the first quarterback he coached as head coach of the program, Heath Shuler, according to the interview transcript on the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

"“Who does he remind me of? Not Peyton (Manning), that’s for sure. Brent Schaeffer played a little bit for us and had that kind of escapability and mobility, but I don’t know if I had one quite like him. If you really wanted to get down to it, I guess it would be Heath Shuler.”"

Of course, this is a major compliment. Heath Shuler was indeed a mobile quarterback who was deadly accurate at the same time while playing college football, to the point that many in Vol Nation had no idea what would happen once he left for the NFL after 1993.

Fortunately, Peyton Manning came right after that, so it is hard to remember just how gloomy the situation was at the time.

That’s a credit to Fulmer for focusing on finding a successor immediately after Shuler’s departure.

But back to Dobbs, if he can do the things Shuler could do in Butch Jones’s offense, he would be incredible. Had the spread offense been utilized by David Cutcliffe in 1992 and 1993, there is a good chance the Vols would have won a national championship that year under Shuler with all of the talent on the field during that time.

His failed NFL career aside, Shuler is a great college comparison to have. And Fulmer is spot on with that analysis.

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