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Show Five years is a long time to wait for a winning football team, but Redskin fans weren't thinking about the past in 1969. They were too busy watching their team battle to its best record since the Liberty Bowl year of 1964. The '64 Utes piled up an 8-2 regular season record and tacked on a 32-6 Bowl victory against West Virginia. In 1969, Utah molded another 8-2 season but decided against accepting any bowl bids. The 8-2 mark was good, but not quite good enough to bring the Western Athletic Conference crown to Utah. Arizona and Arizona State teamed up to grab the glory from the Redskin doorstep as Arizona handed Utah its only WAC loss, 17-16, and the Sun Devils took advantage of uneven scheduling to record one more conference win than the Utes and wrap up the title. ASU also had one WAC defeat-a 24-23 loss to Utah. The Utes' first game with Oregon was not destined to tell the story of the season. The Ducks dropped Utah, 28-17, after giving the Redskins a 14-6 halftime edge. One field goal by Marv Bateman was the rest of the scoring story for the Utes, while Oregon took maximum advantage of two intercepted passes, then scored again late in the fourth period. The Oregon game brought the team insight into why they were losing and howto remedy it. The following week in Ute Stadium, the Redskins found the cure-confi-dence-and bombarded San Jose State with six touchdowns while recording a 42-6 win. The Redskins started off the WAC portion of their schedule with a 24-6 victory in Texas El Paso's back yard. The Utes exploded for 17 points in the second half while holding the Miners scoreless. Favored Arizona State was next in line, but Redskins paid no attention to the oddsmakers. Utah came from behind to hang a 24-23 defeat on the Sun Devils, and the Ute title hopes, though not to come true, were looking brighter. New Mexico contributed another victory to the Redskin cause, 106 FOOTBALL WAC title lost by an inch |