When you say 'last two years' are you talking about the current first year guys and the supposed class which will come on in 2014....or the classes that come on in 2012 and 2013. If it's the latter, it doesn't seem like the classes have made much mark yet. I know that much more comes out in later years, yet I'd hope at least a short list of those guys would have shown to be of pretty singular talent.
I had posted this table awhile ago on the recruiting forum which shows the dates when verbals were received by year, but I know that not everyone reads that forum. The data is incomplete for the last couple years, sorry:
By June Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb
2005 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 20 6
2006 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 9 6
2007 0 0 0 1 1 1 4 5 9
2008 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 2 9
2009 0 0 0 2 0 3 2 3 11
2010 0 2 1 2 1 0 0 3 7
2011 2 2 3 0 0 0 0 4 5
2012 0 0 0 4 1 1 4 5 4
2013 1 10
2014 5 . 8 3
As you can see, the 2013 and 2014 classes look very different. Most prior classes have few recruits prior to November.
The 2013 class were freshmen this year. One sign that they are good is the comments Solich made - he essentially said just that, that he was impressed with this group of Freshmen and thought it was the best group yet. Another early sign that they are good is the high number of true freshmen that played. While sometimes a true Freshman plays because of unusual need, as in injury situations, it is also true that every Solich recruit that has been drafted played as a true freshman, so talent is also a reason a person plays as a Freshman. Sayles, Basham, Mangen, Wood, Dyquan Stewart and Sebastian Smith are the players that played as True Freshmen this year, while in most years only 1-2 True Freshmen played. In the absence of injuries, Mangen and Wood would probably not have played, yet so far as I can tell, all six of these True Freshmen played well.
The 2014 class, we will see next fall. I hope they are as good as the 2013 class, or better.