The major difference between this class and some of Charlie's classes (some of which were very highly ranked) is the athletes we pulled down on the Defensive line. Nobody ever accused Weis of not being able to bring in talent, but Kelly was able to address some serious needs. In my opinion, to a certain extent, talented players at RB and WR are a dime a dozen, but what separates the boys from the men is the athletes in the trenches (OL and DL). This is why the SEC currently dominates college football. The Offensive and Defensive lines in the SEC simply dominate other conferences...
Guys like Lynch, Tuitt, Springman, Hounshell Williams, Nix from last year, Hegarty, Hanratty, Niklas etc. are not "dime a dozen" types and will hopefully help us get to the next level. Kelly's offenses will always be able to score points. That is practically a given. We need to continue to improve on the other side of the ball and in the trenches in order to get back to a top 10 program.
The last time we were getting serious athletes on defense (Holtz era) -- with guys like Bryant Young, Bert Berry, Jim Flanigan, Chris Zorich, Oliver Gibson to name a few -- was the last era (1987-1994) we were seriosuly competitive.
