Don’t start this nonsense now. They’ve gone down this road already.

New doesn’t mean different.

Translation: Ignore all those stars from all those blue-chippers in coach Mario Cristobal’s 2nd recruiting class.

Because make no mistake, Cristobal already has.

“I’m more concerned about how they play and conduct themselves when they get here,” Cristobal said of his top-10 recruiting class, “”

This is what happens when high hopes translate into a disturbing and deflating 7-loss season. When the celebrated return of a home-grown Cane taking over a stale program goes thud deep into the season with losses to Middle Tennessee and Duke (again) and North Carolina (again) and Florida State and … did I mention Middle Tennessee?

When a group of players boasted in the offseason that change had arrived, and the old Canes were back and the next thing you know, the quarterback who showed out on social media with his brand new NIL-fueled BMW, tumbled through a season of regression.

From 1st-round lock in the 2023 NFL Draft to fighting off a couple of freshmen to keep his job, the fall of Tyler Van Dyke may as well have been a microcosm of Year 1 under Cristobal.

All flash, no substance.

By the end of the 2022 season, the group that talked a big game lost at home to Pitt by 26. Which was only moderately better than losing by 30 to Clemson the week before, and hugely better than losing by 42 to FSU, or by 14 at home to — this is still inconceivable — Middle Tennessee.

So excuse Cristobal if he’s not throwing up “The U” when speaking of the No. 7-ranked recruiting class (per 247Sports composite), and a strong (and growing) transfer portal class. The 2022 Canes tied for the worst record at Miami since 2007, and the worst at the school since a 3-8 mark in 1977 began talk of disbanding the program.

At the end of the 2022 disaster, 19 players (3 full-time starters) left for the portal. So the idea of buying in and returning the program to glory wasn’t exactly embraced by all.

You can make it through 19 players not investing and win — if you have an elite quarterback. Cristobal had it in his first season at Oregon in 2018 (Justin Herbert), but didn’t have it in 2022.

So if you’re looking for where this thing turns, look no further than quarterback. Because the lines of scrimmage that were routinely exposed last season will be better with an increase of talent and 1 more full offseason under highly-regarded strength coach Aaron Feld.

The one thing not guaranteed is the most important position on the field — and who’s coaching him. Frank Ponce, who coached Van Dyke and freshmen Jake Garcia and Jacurri Brown last season, took the OC job at App State.

That means Cristobal is looking for a quarterbacks coach (and likely a play-caller) to develop a quality starter from a quarterbacks room that lost Garcia but picked up a freshman signee (Emory Williams) and could still add from the transfer portal.

Marcus Arroyo, Cristobal’s OC/QB’s coach at Oregon from 2018-19 before taking the UNLV job, is available. While that sounds like an easy plug-and-play, remember that nothing has come easy in Coral Gables over the past 2 decades.

That’s why Cristobal was lured home from Oregon — where he had everything he wanted and was building a monster — by a deep-pocket booster and the pull of rebuilding his alma mater.

The same booster (John Ruiz) who is filling Miami collectives and is in the process of building a brand new, state-of-the-art football stadium in Tropical Park, about 9 miles from the Coral Gables campus — instead of 30 miles to a stadium shared by the Canes and the NFL’s Dolphins.

Everything is set up for Cristobal to succeed. He has proven he can recruit elite players to Miami despite the product, and has the financial backing to do so (with both high school and transfer portal recruiting).

Soon, he’ll have the proposed 65,000-seat stadium as another huge recruiting tool. At that point, there’s nothing in the way of Miami returning to glory.

He added 2 impact offensive linemen from the portal — G Javion Cohen (Alabama), C Matthew Lee (UCF) — and a run-stuffing DT Brandon Deen (Purdue). The secondary that struggled in coverage will get a boost from 2 impact cornerbacks — Terry Roberts (Iowa) and Davonte Brown (UCF) — and freshman DE Rueben Bain, a blue-chip recruit who had 58.5 sacks the last 2 high school seasons in the state of Florida’s highest classification.

“We expect epic battles in the spring (practice) and fall (camp),” Cristobal said.

Last April, before Cristobal’s first season played out, I spoke with him during the ACC spring meetings at Amelia Island, Fla. I had never seen him so pumped about a team and its future — and this was the same coach who was overly excited during his time at Oregon.

“I got my hands on this thing now,” he said. “We are not going backward.”

There’s only 1 way to go now.

Where new finally means different.