Warily eyeing the honey mustard dressing clinging to his salad’s lettuce leaves, Roger Shultz proclaimed, “I’ve got to get some vinaigrette on this before I can eat it.”

Losing 164 pounds will do that to a guy.

Among Alabama football fans, particularly those attending the Chattanooga alumni chapter dinner at the Chattanooga Golf & Country Club on Tuesday night, Shultz will always be known as one of the Crimson Tide’s biggest winners. During his five years on scholarship, the two-time All-SEC offensive lineman never lost to the Vols.

After the last of those victories in 1990, he famously told the media, “We ought to pay property tax on Neyland Stadium because we own it.”

But Shultz owned the hearts of much of the country not tinted UT Orange this past winter for his efforts on the NBC weight-loss show “The Biggest Loser.” After losing an average of a pound a day for more than five months, he finished second, dropping from 363 pounds to 199.

“I hadn’t weighed that little since junior high,” he said. “And it was incredible the impact it’s had. I’ve had people from Utah to Canada — I didn’t even know it was shown in Canada — tell me how inspirational it was.”

More important, he was able to quit taking medication for his Type 2 diabetes and he no longer suffers from sleep apnea.

“The hardest part was taking my shirt off on national television,” he said. “No matter how you present it, man boobs just aren’t that attractive.”

He’ll quickly tell you he didn’t lose the weight to be attractive so much as healthy. He and his wife Paige want to give their nearly 6-year-old son Ivan a sibling. Shultz would like to be around to watch his children grow up.

“My real weakness has always been pastries,” said Shultz, who had to gain weight to play at Alabama, often eating two Big Macs or an entire pizza just before going to bed.

“Gradually, it got away from me after college. I tried to get on the show three or four times and just missed. This time they called me. They said, ‘Are you still interested?’ I said, ‘I’m still fat.’”

Shultz is mostly crimson and white through and through. While filming “Loser” in California from October through March — “We got to go home for Christmas,” he said — Shultz was largely cut off from the outside world except for letters.

After the Tide’s sixth straight loss to Auburn, Paige — an Auburn grad — sent him a picture of Ivan decked out in Auburn garb.

“It was like a knife to my stomach,” he said. “I would have rather seen a picture of my wife kissing another guy. After the show was over my son asked me why they would sometimes fuzzy up my mouth and bleep my words. Sometimes during workouts I’d curse and they’ve have to bleep me. But I told him that’s what happens when you say, ‘Auburn.’”

Shultz said what most helped him bleep the weight was bringing along close friend and former Tide teammate Trent Patterson, whose weight had ballooned to nearly 450 pounds.

“The producers of the show called me one day and asked if I had any photos of me and Trent playing together,” said Shultz, who signed with coach Ray Perkins, played three years under Bill Curry and then played his senior season under Gene Stallings.

“I started looking through some scrapbooks and realized that Trent was right beside me in every picture I had. We’d been like brothers while we were at Alabama.”

The two finally parted company on “Biggest Loser” when Patterson injured his knee and could no longer handle the demanding exercise regime. Though Shultz ultimately finished second, he set a record for most pounds lost. Unfortunately, he also lost his job as an assistant athletic director at Jacksonville State during the five-month taping.

“So if you know anybody who needs a guy about to get his doctorate in marketing,” Shultz said, “please give them my name.”

And please bring along a low-cal bottle of vinaigrette for the interview lunch.

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