They Take the Cake for Canny Coaching : Rose Bowl: Washington is favored today, but Iowa’s Fry and Huskies’ James don’t look ahead.

Washington, coached by New Year’s Eve birthday boy Don James, and Iowa, coached by life-of-the-party Hayden Fry, converge today for the 77th Rose Bowl game.

No national championship awaits the winner, but an anticipated six-figure crowd and eight-figure television audience will see a Washington team that came within two goal-line stands of defeating No. 1-ranked Colorado. The Huskies manhandled seven opponents by three touchdowns or more on their way to a record of 9-2.

Iowa, at 8-3, won road games at Illinois, Michigan and Michigan State while tying those schools for the Big Ten championship. Elsewhere on the road, however, the Hawkeyes gave up 542 yards to Miami and were embarrassed in the season’s final game by mediocre Minnesota.

This partially accounts for Iowa being an underdog for today’s game, which the coach himself could not resist mentioning when Fry presented James with a birthday cake Monday at Tournament House in Pasadena.

Since James, 59, was not born yesterday, he joked as he took the cake: “I’ve seen a few setups in my career, but this . . .

“Talk about gamesmanship.”

To which Fry replied: “Hey, with a 9 1/2-point spread, you should feel like a fat cat.”

To which James replied: “Hayden, I drove by the Rose Bowl scoreboard this morning, and there were no points up there.”

Fry has been around awhile himself. Weaned on football in Odessa, Tex., site and inspiration for the current best-seller about high school ball, “Friday Night Lights,” Fry, 61, ranks third in victories among active college coaches, trailing only Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden. His 179 successes, however, do not include a Rose Bowl, an event in which he is 0-2.

James specializes in bowl games. His Huskies appeared in nine during the 1980s alone and have been victorious in eight of their last 11. Among the victims was Iowa, whitewashed by Washington, 28-0, in the 1982 Rose Bowl.

Fry sounds impressed, bordering on terrified, when describing Iowa’s outlook toward today’s rematch.

“No question in our minds, this Washington team is the fastest team in college football,” Fry said. “And they’ve got an absolutely huge offensive line. And they’ve got the most complex, frustrating defense we’ve faced. Throw that in with Don James and his coaching staff and, let me tell you, this hasn’t been a real enjoyable two weeks.”

More gamesmanship?

Maybe, but consider the Iowa coach’s points, one by one:

--Fast: Washington’s backfield is anchored by Greg Lewis, who placed seventh in the Heisman Trophy voting. Lewis gained 100 or more yards in each of the first nine games before suffering an injured right knee during the second quarter of Washington’s 25-22 loss to UCLA, but has pronounced himself ready for the Rose Bowl.

“My guess is he’ll play without a leg brace, and that he’ll be maybe 90%,” James said.

Contending that he was totally fit, Lewis smiled and said: “I think he’s robbing me of 10%.”

Just in case, Lewis is backed up at tailback by Beno Bryant of Dorsey High, who ran the opening leg of Washington’s Pacific 10 Conference champion 400-meter relay team. Flanker Orlando McKay also passed a baton on that relay. And even Washington’s quarterback, Mark Brunell, is as quick as they come.

--Huge: Not only do Washington’s five offensive interior linemen average 288 1/2 pounds, but their leader, tackle Lincoln Kennedy, is 6-feet-7 and 315 pounds.

--The Huskes led the nation in rushing defense. Four defensive players made first-team all-conference. Opposing rush yardage totals included San Jose State’s 42, Purdue’s zero, USC’s 28, Arizona State’s 25, Oregon’s seven and Washington State’s minus-seven.

So, you can see why Fry is saying: “Looks like we’d better circle the wagons.”

Of further benefit to Washington today will be the absence of Iowa’s all-Big Ten defensive lineman Jim Johnson, who will be sidelined because of a knee injury he suffered in practice last Friday.

Keeping a stiff upper lip Monday, Johnson said several teammates had expressed their sympathies in terms such as, “They wish it had been them.” But showing the kind of sportsmanship that makes a coach proud, Johnson added: “I’d rather sit on the sidelines of the Rose Bowl than be with any other team tomorrow any place else.”

Washington’s offense should be tough enough for Iowa to stop, even with Lewis coming back from his injury and Brunell recuperating from flu. Brunell, a prep honor student from Santa Maria, is James’ first left-handed quarterback in his 16 seasons at Washington, and he, too, makes the Iowa coach nervous.

“This is one of the most diversified quarterbacks in college football and certainly the fastest,” Fry said. “Just pure raw speed.”

Facing Pac-10 teams with superior quickness is one reason Iowa ripped up its artificial turf and planted grass, simply to prepare for future Rose Bowl opponents, Fry claimed.

Whatever the surface, his Hawkeyes flew. They scored 63 points against Cincinnati in the season opener, 46 against Iowa State, 56 against Northwestern and 54 at Illinois. Their 395-point total for the season was Iowa’s second-highest ever.

Although the Hawkeye linemen are considerably lighter than Washington’s, tailback Nick Bell is a 6-3, 255-pound former high school sprinter who might have the Huskies circling their wagons. Bell alternates at his position with the smaller, swifter Tony Stewart, another track star. In the Wisconsin game, Bell and Stewart combined to rush for 270 yards.

Quarterback Matt Rodgers made the top five among Iowa’s all-time leaders in pass completions. His best day: Probably the 27-of-37, 276-yard effort against Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Unranked even in a top-35 preview before the season, Iowa was sitting pretty with a 7-1 record before its disappointing finish. Ohio State beat the Hawkeyes by one point on a last-second pass, and two weeks later came the 31-24 setback in Minnesota as Fry’s team came out flat and stayed that way.

Yet Iowa, which last won a Rose Bowl in 1959, is in no way conceding this one to the Pac-10 champions, in spite of the odds.

Nor is Don James, who knows better. “Just because you’re a favorite,” he said, “doesn’t mean a damn thing in this sport.”