Friday, February 7, 1997

Texas Tech signed 4-5A cream of the crop

By LANCE FLEMING / Sports Writer

Texas Tech has always liked to think of itself as the university for West Texas.

Wednesday it apparently became the university for District 4-5A when four of the league's best players inked national letters-of-intent to play college football for the Red Raiders.

They topped off an impressive Tech recruiting class that includes Shallowater tight end Cole Roberts, Pampa linebacker Devin Lemons and Lubbock Monterey defensive back Dorian Pitts.

But those players, along with the other 18 players Tech signed, are only the filling in this class. The icing on the cake is Cooper running back Dominic Rhodes, Midland Lee's defensive back duo of John Norman and Antwan Alexander and Odessa Permian offensive tackle Jason May.

Three of the four - Rhodes and Alexander (if they make their test scores) and Norman - could play or start next year for the Red Raiders. Norman will almost definitely start in the secondary at "Raider Back," a combination linebacker and strong safety.

Tech coach Spike Dykes said in a Thursday morning phone interview that he thought it was imperative to keep those four players from straying too far from home.

Far too many times in the past, too many great players from District 4-5A have gotten away from the Red Raiders. For every Lloyd Hill or Tony Daniels that signs on with the Raiders, there's a Britt Hager, Terry Orr, K.C. Jones, Junior Miller or Mike Rose that got away.

"If we're going to get where we want to get, we have to keep great West Texas players in West Texas," said Dykes, who'll be entering his 11th season as the Tech head coach in 1997. "We've never done it like we should in that district, and this year we did."

One of the reasons Rhodes said he chose Tech over Texas is that Dykes and his staff made a commitment to stick by him while he tries to make the SAT score he needs to be eligible next season.

"That's something we told Dominic all along we would do," Dykes said. "You know, there's not one kid out there that's qualified yet for college. Nobody's qualified at any school until that last grade is put on the transcript. We're going to stay with Dominic."

Tech has been after Rhodes since this past summer, but other schools hopped on the Rhodes bandwagon late in the season with his performance in the last four regular season games and through the playoffs. He was rated by BG 12 Recruiting News as the No. 2 prospect in the state behind Tyler John Tyler defensive lineman David Warren, who signed with Florida State.

All that attention, though, didn't affect Tech's line of thinking.

"We've been after Dominic since last summer, and we told him then that he had a scholarship waiting for him at Texas Tech," Dykes said. "Dominic seemed really interested then, and he had a great visit when he came up here last weekend. Dominic told us in the summer that he would think about us, and he's got great loyalty. I think it'll be a great marriage between Dominic and Texas Tech."

Weeks before national signing day arrived, some recruiting services said that Tech had to secure the services of Norman, Alexander, Rhodes and Roberts to be able to compete in the Big 12 Conference. The reasoning went that if they signed, future Texas Top 100 players would want to sign with the Red Raiders.

Dykes doesn't disagree with that at all.

"I really believe that," he said. "I think these guys will play a big part in how we do from now on. We got two guys in town (Pitts and Lubbock Estacado linebacker Detwill Williams), Roberts, Lemons and the four guys from 4-5A. We expect all of them to do a great job for us for the next four years."

And, perhaps, beyond that in the Big 12 recruiting wars.