COLLEGE FOOTBALL / POSTSEASON BOWL GAMES : HOLIDAY BOWL / ALAN DROOZ : Iowa’s Fry Sporting a New Grin Thanks to Hard Working Team

If Iowa Coach Hayden Fry smiles a bit easier these days, it’s no accident. Now he hopes to put the bite on Brigham Young.

After decades of hiding his mouth behind his hands, Fry finally gave in and underwent nearly two years of work at Iowa’s college of dentistry.

The result: the 62-year-old Fry has become a poster boy for the dental profession, and can now grin without worry when he whips out one of his good ol’ boy one-liners.

The dental work--five different procedures including braces--was completed in 1990, but Fry went public this fall when he was the subject of an article in “Smiles,” the newsletter of the American Assn. of Orthodontists.

For much of his adult life, Fry said, he had chipped or missing teeth dating back to his days as a boxer and football player in his native Texas. “I just never really felt comfortable smiling,” he said in the article. “I really needed dental work from having been a boxer in my younger days without wearing a mouthpiece and from playing football and having teeth chipped and knocked out. I probably could’ve hit a target 10 feet away by spitting through my front teeth.”

Fry approached Iowa’s dental school, deciding “it was extremely valuable to be to have a nice, healthy smile rather than keeping my mouth closed all the time.” Doctors devised a lengthy treatment plan, though by orthodontic standards it was condensed and, friends say, painful. Initially, Fry was skeptical of the braces. “I told the doctors, ‘I’m too old to try to look pretty,’ ” he recalled.

However, the Iowa dental faculty was able to convince Fry to wear braces for the better part of a year. He told the newsletter he didn’t take too much heat from his players: “The players are normally kind of afraid of their old coach so they didn’t really have anything to say. I thought wearing braces would be embarrassing but it wasn’t.”

Steve Aquilino, one of dental team, told the Des Moines Register that Fry was a willing patient once the program was explained. “He was probably one of our more ideal patients, one of the more personable patients. He was super,” he said.

The results were so agreeable that the dental team sees Fry as an example that nobody is too old for dental care, or even braces.

With record-setting Ty Detmer preparing for his last college game Monday, the obvious question is who is the heir apparent, but there is no obvious answer. Detmer has been virtually indestructible in his career, not missing a start in three seasons while shattering all the records set by his BYU predecessors, Marc Wilson, Robbie Bosco and Jim McMahon.

So who is the next great BYU quarterback? Freshman John Walsh of Torrance worked his way up to second on the depth chart, but that’s like being the backup to Cal Ripken at shortstop. Walsh has thrown 16 passes all year.

If that makes the 6-foot-4 Walsh, who led Carson High to a Los Angeles City Section 4-A title last year, the leader going into spring practice, there’s competition in the background.

Steve Clements, a sophomore transfer from Texas, was a redshirt this season and based on his performance in practices, is expected to compete for the starting position. Also returning is Ryan Hancock of Cupertino, a redshirt freshman who hasn’t played a down this season.

“I don’t think it’s clear,” said Eric Drage, the team’s leading receiver. “Walsh has the ability but Clements could step up. It should be a great battle in spring practice.”

Coach LaVell Edwards couldn’t name a favorite, either. “We’ve got two or three guys that look like they’ll be pretty good,” he said.

Also on BYU’s postseason agenda is recruiting Detmer’s kid brother, Koy, who is following in Ty’s footsteps as a star high school quarterback in suburban San Antonio, where their father, Sonny, is the football coach.

BYU is one of several schools Koy Detmer is considering. He has also visited Penn State and has a trip planned to Kentucky. Ty Detmer said he won’t try to sway his brother toward BYU.

“It’s his decision--he didn’t influence mine, I’ll stay out of his,” Detmer said.

Edwards sidestepped the issue, saying, “I can’t make comments on recruiting.”