ATLANTA - The first Pitt bowl game I covered was the 2011 BBVA Compass Bowl. That one was at the end of the 2010 season and saw interim head coach Phil Bennett lead an angry Pitt team to a win over Kentucky.

Since then, I have covered seven more bowl games, and the Panthers have lost every single one.

There was the next BBVA Compass Bowl; Pitt lost that in one of the most disinterested performances I’ve ever seen. The Panthers lost in Birmingham again the next year, and I was there to see it.

Two years later, I followed Pitt to Texas to cover another loss; this time, it was a blown lead against Houston. The next year, I made the drive to Annapolis for a loss to Navy. Then a drive to the Bronx for a loss in the Pinstripe Bowl. And three years ago, I flew to El Paso for the Sun Bowl.

Losses, all of them.

That brings us to last night, when Pitt made its first New Year’s Six appearance. The venue was Mercedes-Benz Stadium, a beautiful stadium, to face Michigan State, a 10-win team from the Big Ten who finished the season ranked No. 10 in the College Football Playoff rankings.

I don’t need to waste time here: you know what happened. You know about Kenny Pickett opting out and Nick Patti getting hurt and Davis Beville throwing a pick after some of his best plays of the game.

You know about Michigan State converting 4-of-5 third downs in the fourth quarter and converting fourth down on the one third down the Spartans missed. You know about MSU running 49 plays in the second half and finishing the game with a 10-minute advantage in time of possession.

You know about Pitt taking an 11-point lead into the fourth quarter only to lose on a touchdown and two-point conversion.

You know what happened, so I’m not going to tell you.

I’m also not going to tell you that the game didn’t matter or Pitt didn’t care about winning or anything like that. If you watched the sideline, you know the players cared. A lot. And when they lost after leading by double figures, there was no doubting the disappointment.

When you have a game, you want to win. Players want to win. Coaches want to win. Fans want to win. That’s the objective, and falling short of it, no matter the significance of the game, is disappointing.

So I’ll say that. But I’ll also say that last night’s game was not like those other bowl losses I’ve witnessed in person. It goes down as a loss just like those games, but you and I know it wasn’t like that.

You and I know that Pitt was on its third quarterback and missing eight other two-deep players beyond Pickett and Patti. You and I know that those personnel losses were compounded by the departure of Mark Whipple, leaving Pitt with an interim offensive coordinator.

You and I know that the Panthers absorbed those personnel losses and took the No. 10 team in the country to the wire.

And more importantly, you and I know what Pitt did less than a month ago in the ACC Championship Game and two weeks before that to clinch the Coastal Division and four weeks before that to beat Clemson and so on and so forth.

You and I know about Pitt’s record-breaking season. The first Coastal team to win the ACC since 2010. The first Pitt team to win 11 games since 1981. The first Pitt quarterback to be a Heisman Trophy finalist ever.

Every step of the way, the 2021 Panthers broke new ground and laid the foundation for seasons to come. Pitt will return the bulk of its non-quarterback contributors and leaders in 2022 and should enter the season as the prohibitive favorite in the division and possibly the conference. There will be holes to fill, for sure, but seven years of roster-building seems to have the Panthers positioned to continue this success into next season.

But whatever happens in 2022, much like whatever happened in Mercedes-Benz Stadium last night, won’t change what has already happened:

Pitt went 11-3 to win its division and its conference to post the program’s most successful season in 40 years.