FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas offensive coordinator David Lee hasn’t spent much time looking at game tapes from the 2006 season. He’s been too busy putting together a new passing offense for the Razorbacks.

“We’ve rewritten the passing game part of the playbook totally,” Lee said Thursday when he met with the media. “If you guys ever watch pro football, that’s what it’s going to be.”

Lee, hired by Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt on Jan. 17, spent the past four seasons in the NFL working for the Dallas Cowboys as a quality control assistant.

With the Cowboys, Lee’s duties included breaking down opponents’ games and tendencies to help formulate game plans, working with the quarterbacks on fundamentals and being in the press box on game days to feed information to the coaches on the field.

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Lee, 53, is working as an Arkansas assistant coach for the third time. In his previous two stints with the Razorbacks, he was quarterbacks coach for Ken Hatfield (1984-1988 ) and Nutt (2001-2002 ).

Now he has the added responsibility of being a coordinator and play-caller for the offense.

“I’ve been a part of what we did in the past,” Lee said. “It will have nothing in common with what we’re about to do.”

Lee is well aware of Arkansas’ inability to have a consistently productive passing game since quarterback Clint Stoerner and wide receiver Anthony Lucas were senior stars for the Razorbacks in 1999.

Since 2000, Arkansas’ highest national passing offense ranking to finish a season has been 62 nd in 2004 and four times in that span the Razorbacks have been 88 th or lower, including 108 th the past two seasons.

“When Matt Jones was here, we couldn’t throw it across the street very well,” Lee said, referring to the former Arkansas quarterback who was known more for his legs than this arm and who now plays wide receiver in the NFL. “But we’re going to try again and see if we can’t pick it up and catch it up to our run game and our defense.”

Arkansas consistently has been the SEC’s top running offense and should be again in 2007 led by junior tailbacks Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, who rushed for a combined 2, 815 yards last season.

McFadden won the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back, was a first-team All-American and runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. Jones has been an All-American as a kickoff returner.

Led by McFadden and Jones on offense and a defense that featured two probable first-round NFL Draft picks in end Jamaal Anderson and cornerback Chris Houston, the Razorbacks finished 10-4 last season and won the outright SEC West title.

But they lost their last three games — to LSU, Florida and Wisconsin — and struggled to make enough plays in the passing game to beat those powerhouses that finished a combined 36-4.

“Our passing game just wasn’t where our running game was... wasn’t where our defense was,” Lee said. “That was a big, big challenge to me and something I feel good about and excited about that I can come back and make a difference in this program.”

Lee said the main reason he left Arkansas after the 2002 season and took a job with Cowboys Coach Bill Parcells — who was Vanderbilt’s offensive coordinator when Lee played quarterback for the Commodores — was to learn about an NFL passing offense.

Now Lee wants to take what he learned in Dallas and use it at Arkansas.

“When Houston hired me, he said, ‘David, I want to change our passing game. I want to go in another direction. I want to see if this stuff that you’re so excited about can be implemented here, and not only get back to Atlanta [for the SEC title game ], but win there,’” Lee said. “I’m hoping this is going to be the winning edge and we can do it.”

Lee said he wants to keep the “Wildcat” package, in which Mc-Fadden lines up at quarterback in the Shotgun, and expand on it.

“I love the Wildcat. My brain could go Wildcat nuts this spring,” Lee said. “But I want to get this passing game caught up with the rest of us. I look for more Wildcat in the fall.”

Lee said he’s eager to work with split end Marcus Monk, who will be a senior after having 962 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns last season, and getting McFadden, Jones and senior fullback Peyton Hillis more involved in the passing game.

Junior Casey Dick is a returning starter at quarterback but still needs to establish himself in the SEC.

“Casey’s release is fine,” Lee said. “I think he’s got a lot of whip in his arm. I’m glad he’s here.

“ I’ve got to find out, is Casey a progression guy ? Or is he a read guy ? Hopefully, he can do both. Is he going to be better at play-action or better at dropback ?”

Lee said he realizes the players have a lot to process in the passing game this spring and that he can’t overload them in practice and meetings. But he also understands there can’t be a lengthy learning period.

“We don’t have a couple of years,” Lee said. “With this array of talent, we’ve got to get it done right now.”