Doubt if anyone ever envisioned Ralph Kramden as the Razorbacks’ quarterback.

But the Razorbacks could use one like him, new / old offensive coordinator / quarterbacks coach David Lee said.

Well not like really like Ralph, the legendary “ Honeymooner’s” TV character so brashly portrayed by the late Jackie Gleason, just Ralph’s occupation.

“ We need a bus driver, ” Lee said at last Saturday’s annual Razorback alumni breakfast. “ Just a bus driver to keep us in the road and not in the ditch. ”

Lee re-issued the line after Saturday night’s scrimmage when quarterbacks Casey Dick, the junior starter, and Nathan Emert drove the bus with but one detour, Emert’s interception piloting the second offense against the firstteam defense.

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“ We don’t need a guy to be Heisman Trophy at quarterback, ” Lee said. “ We just need a guy to keep it in the street and not let us get off the road. ”

Too many turnovers turn you out, especially, Lee said, at Arkansas. Arkansas is still rooted in the turnover taboo tradition of Frank Broyles though Arkansas’ 82-year-old athletics director last coached Razorback football in 1976.

Lee told the alumni breakfast of his first day on his first Razorback job as quarterbacks coach in 1984 when Ken Hatfield had just succeeded Lou Holtz as head coach.

“ When Coach Hatfield hired me, ” Lee recalled, “ I think Coach Broyles wanted Mal Moore [now Alabama’s athletics director ] to coach the quarterbacks. Coach Broyles walked into my office and we had those chalkboards. Coach Broyles picked up piece of chalk and put up a big, old ‘ T’ and a dot beside it and a big, old ‘ O’ and a dot beside it and looked at me and said, ‘ When Lou Holtz was here, we didn’t turn the ball over very much. ’ And he turned around and walked out. ”

That was just the beginning.

“ Then, ” Lee recalled, “ Ken Hatfield the first staff meeting, the whole thing was not turn the ball over. I got an immediate lesson from those two men what wins football games at the University of Arkansas. ”

There are still no turns from the original turnover taboos for Lee now after two other Arkansas tenures under Broyles-coached Houston Nutt — first as quarterbacks coach in 2001 and 2002 and now — and Lee’s five seasons on the Dallas Cowboys under Bill Parcells.

“ Consistent quarterback play wins championships, ” Lee said. “ Turnovers screw everything up. ”

So getting the ball to All-American running backs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones without a hitch will be Priority 1 for Dick and Emert next fall.

“ We still are going to run the football, ” Lee told the assembled Razorback alums. “ You know that. With those two running backs back there, you guys would run me out from Game 1 if they didn’t get the football. ”

But Lee knows he was brought in to bolster a passing game which saw the 2006 quarterback-receiver performances wane as the season progressed.

With former NFL assistant coach Alex Wood now coaching receivers, the Razorbacks have seen a receiving corps staying on the field as opposed to a rash of receiver hamstring pulls in the spring of 2006. Staying on the field gives you the chance to improve which, Nutt and Lee said, the receivers have done.

“ Alex Wood has done a great job with the receivers, ” Lee said. “ They get better with every practice. His NFL experience in the passing game is invaluable. ”

In the Razorbacks’ first scrimmage of the spring, the inability of receivers to get open fed into hesitant quarterbacks and overworked protection leading to nine quarterback sacks.

Every scrimmage thereafter, the offensive cohesion has improved significantly in all phases for more production and fewer mistakes.

That’s the bus David Lee wants his Ralph Kramdens driving come fall.

Nate Allen covers the Razorbacks for the Northwest Arkansas Times.