A Coach Who Leads Them Laughing : Cotton Bowl: If good humor won games, Spike Dykes’ Texas Tech would be favored over USC.

Texas Tech and its football coach, Spike Dykes, are a perfect fit.

Born not far from the campus in Lubbock and raised in Oasis near the New Mexico border, Dykes is the son of a cotton ginner and spent his internship as a high school coach in West Texas.

Asked about the population of Oasis, he said, “Four. It was six when I was growing up.”

Explaining why he likes living in Lubbock, he said, “There’s not much smog or crime. There’s also not much traffic. If I leave campus at 5, I get home in eight minutes. If I leave at 4, I get home in three minutes. And I live quite a ways away.

“Where I come from, if somebody says hello to you, you don’t just keep walking, you say, ‘Hello, how ya doin’?”

After a loss to Nebraska, he described the Cornhuskers as being “bigger than Russia.”

He also said the Cornhuskers “ground our corn.”

Dykes, whose given name is William, was nicknamed for a Dick Tracy character. He and USC Coach John Robinson should put some levity into what normally are boring pregame news conferences this week in Dallas.

Dykes, 55, is also hoping that his team can give the Trojans a lively debate in the Cotton Bowl on Monday.

Texas Tech and the Cotton Bowl have not exactly been synonymous.

The Red Raiders’ only appearance in the game was in 1939 when St. Mary’s defeated them, 20-13.

The Red Raiders haven’t been much more prominent in football than the Galloping Gaels the last few decades.

Tech had seven consecutive losing seasons from 1979-85 until Coach David McWilliams, in a brief stay before bolting for Texas, compiled a 7-4 regular-season record in 1986.

Dykes replaced McWilliams before the Independence Bowl, a loss to Mississippi. In 1989, Dykes coached the Red Raiders to a 9-3 record, but all three defeats were in Southwest Conference games and they finished third.

The past four years have been virtual carbon copies--6-5, 5-6, 6-6 and 6-5.

Easily the best team in the SWC this season was Texas A&M;, which was 10-0-1 overall and 6-0-1 in the conference. But the Aggies are on probation, meaning no bowls.

Texas Tech, which tied with four others for the title at 4-3, got the Cotton bid in the next-to-last season of the Southwest Conference because they’ve been away from the game longer than Baylor, Texas, TCU or Rice.

“It’s been a long wait,” Dykes said. “I don’t mind people talking about how we backed in (by losing to TCU in the final regular-season game), just as long as they give us some credit.

“The Cotton Bowl is the ultimate for us. It’s a great privilege and an honor.”

Defense is the name of the game for Dykes, who leaves most of the offensive strategy to his coordinator, Dick Winder.

In 1983, Winder’s Abilene Cooper High team was 4-6, but upset Dykes’ Midland Lee team that went to the Class 5A state finals.

Dykes also has a close relationship with his running backs coach--his son, Rick.

The Red Raiders have limited five of their 11 opponents to nine or fewer points, but haven’t faced a team that can pass like USC.

Their greatest accomplishment might have been coming within 14-9 of top-ranked Nebraska early in the third quarter in September at Lubbock before caving in, 42-16.

“They’ve got a good, active defense and you know they’re going to be playing with tremendous enthusiasm,” Robinson said. “This is a huge game for their program.”

Texas Tech quickly sold out its allotment of 20,000 tickets and gobbled up the 7,000 or so USC couldn’t sell of its 12,000.

This is not to suggest that 6-5 goes over that big even in Lubbock.

“I guess you lose 10% of your friends every year,” Dykes said at the start of the season. “I’ve been on the Tech staff for 10 years, so mom and my dog is about all I got left.”