Fry, Stolz Ready for a Holiday : Iowa, SDSU Coaches Trade Compliments, Agree on Bowl System

Denny Stolz jokingly asked Hayden Fry if he planned to run for governor of Iowa.

“He told me no, that it would mean he’d have to take a pay cut,” said Stolz, the San Diego State coach.

Stolz may not be the equal of his Holiday Bowl opponent as a potential political candidate, but he is much the better on a golf course.

The men were brought together Wednesday in Mission Valley to publicize the Dec. 30 game. As a prelude to a news conference, Stolz and Fry displayed their prowess, or lack thereof, with a golf club.

Fry said he might be the only coach in America who doesn’t play golf, and proceeded to prove it. The Iowa coach sliced three balls somewhere in the direction of Del Mar when his target was more toward Escondido.

Stolz, meanwhile, put one ball on the green, enabling him to win the grand prize, a stuffed Shamu. Fry had to settle for a floating glass caddy.

Once the men moved in front of a microphone and got serious, Fry quickly showed some of the charm that has made him so popular in Iowa. Of course, his record, which includes two Rose Bowl appearances, hasn’t hurt his stock any.

After being embarrassed by UCLA, 45-28, in the 1986 Rose Bowl, the Iowa coach seems pretty serious about winning in San Diego.

“I run a tight ship as to what my players can do when they go to a bowl,” he said. “We’ll be playing to win, as well as have a good time. I believe players need some restrictions. Youngsters like to have free time to do their own thing. They’ll have free time in the mornings, but they’ll have to be back at the hotel by a certain time.”

There will, of course, be fewer distractions for the hometown Aztecs.

“Being the home team is an advantage,” Stolz said. “We’ll be in our own facilities and living areas and be more comfortable. If we have any advantage, that’s it. But we’ll try to have fun, too. We’ll take the same trips as the Iowa players (such as the traditional visit to an aircraft carrier).”

The natural grass surface in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium may be another advantage for the Aztecs. Iowa rarely ventures off synthetic surfaces.

“All players prefer grass,” Stolz said. “If we can slow them (Iowa) down a little, let’s let it grow. We’ll check how high the grass was at the Rose Bowl. That’s what we want.”

Fry, whose team hasn’t played on real grass all year, said he had thought his players were relatively quick until he saw UCLA in the Rose Bowl.

“We looked like we were standing in mud and UCLA looked they were wearing roller skates,” he said.

Fry is also impressed with what Stolz has accomplished at SDSU.

“It’s rather phenomenal what he’s done in just one year,” Fry said. “Denny’s team has really come on since the first of the year. Unfortunately for us, their improvement probably will continue in the Holiday Bowl. We were pulling for BYU or Air Force (to win the Western Athletic Conference championship and the Holiday Bowl bid) so we wouldn’t have to play the hometown team.”

Stolz couldn’t let Fry heap praise on him without responding in kind.

“Hayden is one of the five or six coaches at the top in college football,” he said. “The job he’s done at Iowa is one of the major turnabouts in the game.

“We know they are a very, very good football team. Some of our colleagues in the Big Ten say that without a few injuries, Iowa would be in the same breath with Michigan and Ohio State this year.”

Both coaches indicated their support for the bowl system as it now exists and voiced mild opposition to a formal playoff system.

“We’d take away a lot of people’s coffee talk if we had playoffs and a true champion,” Fry said.

“I personally would like to see a true champion in college football, but I don’t think the educators would ever permit it (a playoff system).”

Stolz expanded on Fry’s comments, saying most coaches oppose playoffs. He cited the problem with lengthening the season to accommodate playoffs, but added, “I think the die has been cast with the Fiesta Bowl bringing together the top two teams this year. I see that as a giant step toward a playoff system.”

The national title won’t be at stake here, but Fry said, that with the exception of the Rose Bowl, there’s nowhere he’d rather be than in the Holiday Bowl.

Stolz, admitting that the Big Ten is the most powerful conference in America, suggested that his team will be competitive with Iowa.

“We’ve played pretty well at times this year,” he said. “The top teams in the WAC can occasionally play head to head with the Big Ten. I think we’re going to play like the devil against Iowa.”