Football
Associated Press 17y

Lee says new passing system will look like NFL offense

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- When David Lee was last at Arkansas,
his quarterback was Matt Jones -- a future NFL receiver as effective
with his feet as with his arm.

Now Lee is back as the Razorbacks' new offensive coordinator,
and the passing game he inherits has the same problem.

"We've got to catch up with the rest of our offense," Lee said
Thursday.

Arkansas went 10-4 last season and made it to the Southeastern
Conference championship game, but the Razorbacks' quarterbacks and
receivers lacked experience, and they lost their last three games.
Running back Darren McFadden, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, could
only do so much.

That's where Lee comes in. He was hired from the Dallas Cowboys'
staff to replace the departed Gus Malzahn -- and he'll be the latest
coach to try to bring some much-needed balance to Arkansas'
run-heavy offense.

"I want that shot to go back to Atlanta again (for the SEC
title game) with a passing game and see what happens," Lee said.

Lee returns to Arkansas for a third tour of duty -- he was on the
Razorbacks' staff from 1984-88 and 2001-02. He was an assistant for
the last four seasons with the Cowboys.

Lee worked with quarterbacks with the Cowboys, and Dallas
quarterback Tony Romo helped the team to the playoffs last season.
Lee was the quarterbacks and fullbacks coach during his first stint
at Arkansas, and he was the quarterbacks coach in 2001 and 2002.

The Razorbacks hired Lee in January during a tumultuous week
that included Malzahn's departure to join the staff at Tulsa and
freshman quarterback Mitch Mustain's release to transfer. Lee's
first order of business has been to scrap the passing portion of
Arkansas' playbook last season.

In its place, Lee says, will be something similar to what NFL
teams use.

"If you guys ever watch pro football, that's how it's going to
be," Lee said.

There are plenty of differences between college football and the
pros, of course -- from player time commitment to recruiting.

"Up there, we get to pick 'em," Lee said. "We don't like 'em,
we cut 'em and go buy another one."

That's not an option for Arkansas, though. The Razorbacks'
roster is pretty much set for next season. There's plenty of talent
on hand, but the keys to the passing game are largely unproven.

With Mustain gone, Casey Dick is the clear choice at
quarterback. At receiver, Arkansas will have Marcus Monk, the
school's career leader in touchdown catches. But nobody else on the
team had more than 19 catches last season.

Lee hopes the passing game can flourish thanks to the strong
running game, which features McFadden and fellow 1,000-yard rusher
Felix Jones. Fullback Peyton Hillis is also an asset when healthy --
he can run, block and catch short passes out of the backfield.

Lee talked about working with Romo on his release point, and he
joked that working with running quarterbacks gave him plenty of
experience teaching passing fundamentals.

He also said Arkansas will continue to use the "Wildcat"
package with McFadden at quarterback. Lee said he thinks McFadden
might be able to run the option a bit out of that -- but he doesn't
want to spend too much time on it during spring practice. Arkansas
has too many other things to work on.

"I could go Wildcat nuts this spring," Lee said. "I don't
want to do that."

Lee said he expects Arkansas to use plenty of play-action next
season. With the running game drawing attention, he figures
defenses will be susceptible to fake handoffs.

And the play-action passes won't be short dump-offs.

"The play-action is down the field," Lee said.

Lee said he wants the Razorbacks to learn the new passing
schemes quickly. With talented players like McFadden, Jones and
Monk, the future is now.

"We don't have a couple of years," he said. "This array of
talent ... we need to get it going."

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