David Lee (American football coach)

David Lee (born July 2, 1953 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri) is an American football coach. Lee is the current quarterback coach of the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL); he was formerly the offensive coordinator with the Ole Miss for the 2011 season.

College
David Lee attended Vanderbilt University from 1971-1975 where he earned his bachelor degree in History in 1975. As the quarterback for the Commodores, he served as team captain and was named the team’s most valuable player in 1974 with a record of 7-3-2. Lee went on to lead his team to a 6-6 tie against the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the Peach Bowl.

Collegiate
David Lee began his coaching career at the University of Tennessee at Martin as the quarterbacks and receivers coach. During his time at the University of Tennessee at Martin, he organized the first Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter in the school’s history.

He then left Tennessee-Martin to return to his alma mater, Vanderbilt University, where he coached as the quarterbacks coach for one season. He then spent the next five season as a quarterbacks coach (1978–1982) with the University of Mississippi. In 1983, he served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of New Mexico. Lee left the University of New Mexico to join the University of Arkansas coaching staff. He coached at the University of Arkansas for four years under Ken Hatfield. During his four years as the Razorbacks quarterbacks coach, Lee helped direct the Razorback teams with a record of 45-15-1 as well as five consecutive bowl appearances and was also promoted to offensive coordinator at the University of Arkansas in 1988 where he help lead the Razorbacks to a Southwest Conference title. In 1989, he accepted his first head coaching job with the University of Texas at El Paso from 1989–1993 and posted a record of 11-41-1. In 1994, Lee joined the Hatfield's coaching staff at Rice University as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach where he helped lead Rice University to a share of the Southwest Conference title. Lee returned to the University of Arkansas Razorbacks in 2001 and helped the Razorbacks to a Southeastern Conference Western Division Champion, but his second stay at the University of Arkansas was short. In 2011, Lee returned to the University of Mississippi to be the Rebels' offensive coordinator.

Professional
Lee accepted a professional football coaching position with the Dallas Cowboys in 2003. As an offensive assistant and offensive quality control coach in his first year with the Cowboys, he helped the Cowboys offense finish 15th overall which was a moderate improvement from the 2002 season. In his third year, his role with the Cowboys increase as he became the quarterbacks coach.

Return to coaching college
Following his fourth year with the Cowboys as offensive quality control, Lee returned to the University of Arkansas as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2007. Lee followed Houston Nutt to Ole Miss to be their Offensive Coordinator, however, his old boss, Bill Parcells—the Miami Dolphins new VP of Football Operations—hired Lee to be the Dolphins quarterback coach for the 2008 season. Lee was named “Innovator of the Year” 2008 by Sporting News for introducing the “Wildcat offense” to the NFL.

After finishing a two year stint at Miami, on Monday January 11, 2011 Lee was brought back to the University of Mississippi as Offensive Coordinator under head coach Houston Nutt.

Buffalo Bills
Following the departure of George Cortez who took a job as the head coach of the Hamilton TigerCats of the CFL, The Buffalo Bills hired Lee on January 13th, 2012 to be the Quarterback coach under Chan Gailey

Personal life
Lee spent most of his childhood in Dexter, Missouri. He then attended Woodham High School in Pensacola, Florida, where he graduated in 1971.

Lee is currently married to Lynne Kazanowski. The couple have four children (daughters Dana and Shannon, and sons Brian and Jordan).