[BostonCard]

On the other hand, I am not immediately able to suggest another golden age that was more improbable. 
Maybe someplace like Oregon? Not in a particularly strong recruiting area, a relatively small state university in a relatively small state in a smaller city, terrible football records from the mid-60s through late 80s, they had to hold on to Brooks for 12 years before he broke through - of those 12 only four were winning records and those just barely.
Or ... TCU? Baylor (before the crash)?

Three other "golden ages" in the Pac-12 that you could argue are improbable:
Cal during the Jeff Tedford age.  Like us, he inherited a team that had gone 1-10 the year before (Tom Holmoe's 2001 team).  He proceeded to make them bowl eligible the very next year (though I don't think they went to a bowl that year), and they had a winning record for 8 consecutive years, two with 10 win seasons.  I would say it was improbable, because the coach before (Holmoe) did not have a single winning season, and the coach after had 1 winning season in 4 years (and included a 1-11 season the year after Tedford's departure).  Add to it Cal's lack of history since the 50's the poor (at the time) facilities and a questionable commitment to football by the administration and the University at large, and it's a friggin miracle that Cal had the success they did during Tedford's early years, and that he didn't bolt to the NFL or a higher profile school at the earliest opportunity (as Mariucci did after a single 6-6 season).

OSU during the Dennis Erickson/Mike Riley era.  Not a single winning season between 1971 and 1998, a span that included 1 winless season and 8 one-win seasons, and not a single winning season since Mike Riley's departure.  They were so bad that after Mike Riley's first stint, in which he posted records of 3-8 and 5-6, he was hired by the Chargers.  But over the 14 year period between 1999 and 2013, they went to 11 bowl games in 15 years, and had an 11-win season in which they won the Fiesta Bowl and finished #4 in the country.  And yeah, it's Corvalis, the most improbable of places to have a "golden age".

WSU in the Mike Leach era.  This is maybe less crazy, because WSU had another golden age with Mike Price, but still, I think there is no harder place to recruit players to in the Pac-12 than WSU.  And yet he has had 37 wins in the last four seasons, and five bowl games in the last 6 years.

BC

[BostonCard]

On the other hand, I am not immediately able to suggest another golden age that was more improbable. 
Maybe someplace like Oregon? Not in a particularly strong recruiting area, a relatively small state university in a relatively small state in a smaller city, terrible football records from the mid-60s through late 80s, they had to hold on to Brooks for 12 years before he broke through - of those 12 only four were winning records and those just barely.
Or ... TCU? Baylor (before the crash)?

Three other "golden ages" in the Pac-12 that you could argue are improbable:
Cal during the Jeff Tedford age.  Like us, he inherited a team that had gone 1-10 the year before (Tom Holmoe's 2001 team).  He proceeded to make them bowl eligible the very next year (though I don't think they went to a bowl that year), and they had a winning record for 8 consecutive years, two with 10 win seasons.  I would say it was improbable, because the coach before (Holmoe) did not have a single winning season, and the coach after had 1 winning season in 4 years (and included a 1-11 season the year after Tedford's departure).  Add to it Cal's lack of history since the 50's the poor (at the time) facilities and a questionable commitment to football by the administration and the University at large, and it's a friggin miracle that Cal had the success they did during Tedford's early years, and that he didn't bolt to the NFL or a higher profile school at the earliest opportunity (as Mariucci did after a single 6-6 season).

OSU during the Dennis Erickson/Mike Riley era.  Not a single winning season between 1971 and 1998, a span that included 1 winless season and 8 one-win seasons, and not a single winning season since Mike Riley's departure.  They were so bad that after Mike Riley's first stint, in which he posted records of 3-8 and 5-6, he was hired by the Chargers.  But over the 14 year period between 1999 and 2013, they went to 11 bowl games in 15 years, and had an 11-win season in which they won the Fiesta Bowl and finished #4 in the country.  And yeah, it's Corvalis, the most improbable of places to have a "golden age".

WSU in the Mike Leach era.  This is maybe less crazy, because WSU had another golden age with Mike Price, but still, I think there is no harder place to recruit players to in the Pac-12 than WSU.  And yet he has had 37 wins in the last four seasons, and five bowl games in the last 6 years.

BC