For the Pittsburgh Steelers, the year began with a victory lap of sorts and one final playoff appearance for Ben Roethlisberger.

It ended with the Steelers breaking in a new quarterback and reeling from the sudden loss of one of the franchise’s all-time great players.

Before he retired, Roethlisberger guided the Steelers to wins in their final two regular-season games, including the home finale against Cleveland when his 18-year career was celebrated by fans. Roethlisberger strongly hinted at retirement as 2021 came to close, and he indeed called it a career just 11 days after the Steelers were ousted in the first round of the playoffs by the Kansas City Chiefs.

While Roethlisberger represented the biggest on-field departure, he was accompanied in the front office by general manager Kevin Colbert, who retired after 22 seasons on the job. The architect of two Super Bowl winning teams in his tenure, Colbert eventually was replaced by long-time assistant Omar Khan.

Mt. Lebanon native Andy Weidl, who was one of the finalists for the position, left the Philadelphia Eagles to take the newly created position of assistant general manager with his hometown team.

Colbert’s final acts included addressing the quarterback position in the wake of Roethlisberger’s retirement. He signed Mitch Trubisky in free agency and then drafted Pitt’s Kenny Pickett, a Heisman Trophy runner-up, in the first round. Colbert also drafted wide receiver George Pickens, who contributed immediately and wowed with his one-handed catches.

After Khan took over, he acted quickly to sign free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick to a record-setting contract extension. He also added Larry Ogunjobi to the defensive line after Stephon Tuitt’s retirement. In training camp, Khan signed wide receiver Diontae Johnson and kicker Chris Boswell to extensions.

The Steelers even got a new name for their north shore home as a change in naming rights led to the switch from Heinz Field to Acrisure Stadium.

For the second year in a row, the underdog Steelers opened the year by upsetting a division champion on the road, but the win at Cincinnati came at a cost. T.J Watt, named the NFL’s defensive player of the year in February, injured his pectoral muscle and wouldn’t return until after the mid-season bye week.

The Steelers also struggled with Trubisky under center, prompting coach Mike Tomlin to turn to Pickett at halftime of Week 4. It took a while for Pickett to find his footing, but the Steelers began showing improvement in the second half of the season by winning four of five to climb within a game of .500 as the new year approached.

Set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception, the franchise was rocked when Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Franco Harris died unexpectedly three days before the anniversary and four days before his number was retired in an emotional halftime ceremony.

Harris’ death wasn’t the only one felt by the organization. In April, quarterback Dwayne Haskins was killed when he was struck by a dump truck while trying to cross a Florida interstate after his rental car ran out of gas.

Steelers minority owner John Rooney, uncle of team president Art Rooney II, died in late December.

Penguins keep band together

The most intriguing portion of the Penguins’ year was the summer and did not even take place on the ice.

Entering the offseason, the Penguins weren’t sure if they would be able to keep pending unrestricted free agent defenseman Kris Letang or forward Evgeni Malkin, each pillars of the franchise. Additionally, the futures of key contributors such as forwards Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust were uncertain as well.

Somehow, with a finite amount of salary cap space, general manager Ron Hextall was able to keep the band together.

Letang, 35, agreed to a new six-year contract while Malkin, who turned 36 in July, was re-signed to a four-year contract. Rakell, 29 (six years), and Rust, 30 (six years), also remained in the Penguins’ nest.

Keeping Letang, Malkin and forward Sidney Crosby maintains the Penguins’ status as a Stanley Cup contender for the foreseeable future in management’s estimation.

“These are generational players,” Hextall said on July 13, a day after re-signing Malkin. “These aren’t ‘really good hockey players.’ These are generational players. We still feel like we’re in the mix of the top teams in the league.”

A few weeks later, the Penguins took a different approach to a significant portion of their blue line as they dealt away defensemen John Marino and Mike Matheson in order to bring in defensemen Jeff Petry and Ty Smith (to say nothing of Jan Rutta, a free agent signing in mid-July).

On the ice, things largely remained status quo. And in no good way.

That’s to say the Penguins suffered another disappointing first-round loss in the playoffs, this time falling to the New York Rangers as they dropped Game 7 in overtime, 4-3.

With third-string goaltender Louis Domingue forced to play the majority of the series due to injuries that sidelined starter Tristan Jarry and backup Casey DeSmith, the Penguins held a 3-1 lead in the series but weren’t able to put the Rangers away.

Having failed to win a playoff series since 2018, the Penguins have largely gotten off to a satisfying — though streaky — start to the 2022-23 campaign. After enduring a seven-game losing streak in October and November, they rebounded with a seven-game winning streak in December.

Letang’s future — in ways far more profound than his status on the ice — became uncertain Nov. 28 when he was hospitalized with a stroke for the second time in his career. But a staggeringly quick recovery allowed him to be back on the ice by Dec. 10.

Pirates post back-to-back 100-loss seasons

The Pirates had their moments, both victorious and viral, but finished 62-100 to complete back-to-back 100-loss seasons for the first time since the 1950s.

They won a game in which they were no-hit over eight innings by Cincinnati Reds rookie Hunter Greene and reliever Art Warren. Bryan Reynolds hit the first inside-the-park home run at PNC Park since 2013. The Pirates swept the Los Angeles Dodgers, who won an MLB-best 111 games, for the first time in 22 years. The Pirates made major-league history by becoming the first team to have three players (Jack Suwinski, Michael Perez and Reynolds) with three home runs in a game in one month, including Suwinski’s Father’s Day special that served as one of their nine walk-off wins.

Mars alum David Bednar became the Pirates’ first WPIAL product to be selected to the All-Star Game since Dick Groat in 1962. Oneil Cruz, the 6-foot-7 rookie shortstop, showed off his prodigious power with the hardest hit in recorded history with a 122.4 mph single off the top of the Clemente Wall in right field and also homered into the Allegheny River. Right-hander Luis Ortiz made a dazzling debut, averaging 99 mph on 26 fastballs and touching triple digits six times in a 1-0 win over the Reds on Sept. 13.

The season was full of follies: The Pirates were one strike away from being no-hit by St. Louis Cardinals righty Miles Mikolas before a Cal Mitchell double. They had to use a position player, Josh VanMeter, at catcher in the first game of a doubleheader against the Reds when backup Andrew Knapp was ejected for arguing calls from the dugout and starter Roberto Perez suffered a season-ending hamstring injury. The Pirates allowed opponents to score 10 or more runs 14 times, including 10 defeats by double digits, and resorted to using position players VanMeter and Diego Castillo as pitchers in five games. Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks hit grand slams in a 16-0 loss to the Yankees.

The Pirates made headlines for all the wrong reasons. They struck out 18 times in a 10-inning loss to Miami. Boston Red Sox broadcaster Dennis Eckersley called their no-name lineup a “hodgepodge of nothingness.” A squirrel in the outfield at PNC Park interrupted a game. Rodolfo Castro was suspended one game after his cell phone popped out of his back pocket while sliding into third base at Arizona, violating MLB rules for using electronic devices during a game. Third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes was ripped by SNY broadcast analyst Todd Zeile when spotted pulling sunflower seeds out of his back pocket with his glove off as a runner rounded third base on a ball hit to right field in a 4-3 loss to the New York Mets. After a Kevin Newman homer against the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 22, the PNC Park lights went out.

The Pirates served up Aaron Judge’s 60th homer on his way to breaking Roger Maris’ American League record — Judge finished with as many homers as the Pirates did wins — and career homers Nos. 696 and 697 in back-to-back games at PNC Park on Albert Pujols’ quest to become the fourth player in history to hit 700 career homers.

A day after winning by walk-off on four consecutive walks in the bottom of the ninth against St. Louis, the Pirates clinched their second straight 100-loss season — and fourth since 2000.

“It’s tough. You want to win. You want to win every day,” Hayes said. “We were super, super young. We had a lot of changes on the pitching side, on the position player side, having a bunch of guys at first (base), different catchers, really everywhere. It’s tough. We play this game to win each and every night, but I feel like there were a lot of positives this year from the stance of early in the year, being able to sweep the Dodgers. There were glimpses of what we can become.”

Highs outweigh lows for Pitt athletics

Perhaps Pitt’s year in sports will be remembered more for the failures than the successes.

And that would be wrong.

The basketball team started the year winning only 11 of 32 games, a victory total nearly matched by the new-look Panthers who opened 2022-2023 with a 9-4 record.

And the football team regressed from 11-3, an ACC championship and a New Year’s Six bowl appearance to 8-4 and second place in the ACC Coastal.

But two Pitt teams reached the Final Four in their respective sports — men’s soccer and women’s volleyball. And women’s soccer earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time and advanced to the Sweet 16 with victories against Buffalo and Georgetown.

Let’s take a look at what athletic director Heather Lyke can correctly declare is a successful year.

• In football, coach Pat Narduzzi’s eighth season started with quarterback Kedon Slovis confidently labeling his decision to transfer from USC “a no-brainer.”

Yet, near the end of 2022, Narduzzi was questioning Slovis’ leadership ability when he called his next transfer quarterback, Phil Jurkovec, “a tough leadership-type guy, something we desperately needed in that room.”

Then, Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison joined starting linebacker Cam Bright in the transfer portal. Addison was the high-profile defection, taking his 1,593 receiving yards to USC, but Bright (Washington) was the third-leading tackler on a Huskies team that took a 10-2 record into the Alamo Bowl on Thursday.

But there were several high points, not the least of which was the four-game winning streak in November when Pitt outscored four ACC opponents, 126-58. In the process, Narduzzi recorded his 61st victory, second-most among all-time Pitt coaches, passing the legendary Pop Warner (1915-1923).

Defensive tackle Calijah Kancey became a consensus All-American, combining brute strength with off-the-ball quickness that was difficult for offensive linemen to handle.

Izzy Abanikanda led the ACC in rushing with 1,431 yards — the most by a Pitt back since James Conner ran for 1,765 in 2014.

Jared Wayne recorded 1,012 receiving yards, giving Pitt back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons by different pass catchers for the first time since Larry Fitzgerald and Greg Lee (2003-04).

But nine key contributors did not play in the Sun Bowl on Friday against No. 18 UCLA. They were unavailable for three different reasons — injury, decisions to transfer or to stay healthy and prepare for the NFL Draft.

They were Slovis, Abanikanda, Kancey, linebacker SirVocea Dennis, safety Brandon Hill, defensive ends Deslin Alexandre, Habakkuk Baldonado and John Morgan III and offensive lineman Gabe Houy. Slovis and Morgan are transferring while Kancey and Baldonado are injured.

The opt-outs put a huge burden on the defense that will require a significant overhaul in the offseason.

• Speaking of overhauls, men’s basketball coach Jeff Capel launched into one of his own after winning only six conference games in 2021-22 for the third consecutive season.

After 13 games, Pitt had only two fewer overall victories than last season and its four leading scorers were transfers (first-year players Blake Hinson, Nelly Cummings and Greg Elliott and Jamarius Burton, who transferred in 2020).

Meanwhile, 6-foot-11 sophomore transfer Federiko Federiko had replaced All-ACC honorable mention forward John Hugley as the Panthers’ go-to big man. Capel hopes Hugley, who is recovering from a preseason knee injury, starts making larger contributions in the new year.

Capel also was able to recruit freshman help in the form of 6-11 forward Jorge Diaz Graham, who joined the team with his twin brother, Guillermo, from the Canary Islands.

Freshman guard Dior Johnson, the prize recruit from Capel’s class of 2022, will redshirt after returning from suspension after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of domestic violence. He was ordered to serve one year of probation.

• Coach Jay Vidovich’s men’s soccer team rolled through its first four NCAA Tournament games, outscoring Cleveland State, Akron, Kentucky and Portland, 8-2.

The season ended with a College Cup semifinal loss to Indiana, 2-0. It was the second loss to the Hoosiers in the Final Four in three seasons.

But Pitt established itself over those three seasons as one of the powerhouses of collegiate soccer, recording a composite 41-14-7 record.

After the season, for the first time in program history, three players were selected in the 2023 Major League Soccer SuperDraft — first-rounders Bertin Jacquesson and Valentin Noel and fifth-year captain Jackson Walti (second round).

• In its first NCAA Tournament appearance, No. 19 Pitt women’s soccer defeated Buffalo, 1-0, and went on to eliminate Georgetown, 2-1, before losing to No. 5 Florida State, 3-0.

Pitt (14-5-3, 5-3-2 ACC) finished No. 12 in the nation in the United Soccer Coaches Rankings.

• Pitt’s hopes for a women’s volleyball national championship crashed in a tense, five-set loss to Louisville.

It was Pitt’s second loss in two seasons in a Final Four semifinal match.

After winning 31 of 35 matches this season, Pitt captain Chiamaka Nwokolo put a positive spin on a tough loss.

“Our first stump was making it past the Sweet 16 and now our new trial and error is making it past the Final Four,” she said. “That’s not a terrible problem to have. We’re struggling to have perspective right now, but we do have some pride about what we did this year and last year.”

Penn State reaches Rose Bowl

It was an eerily similar start for the Penn State football team. For the second straight season, the Nittany Lions opened the season 5-0, but a couple of Big Ten losses kept the team just out of the College Football Playoff conversation.

Penn State wrapped up the regular season 10-2 after a 41-17 loss at Michigan and 44-31 loss to Ohio State. The Nittany Lions were awarded a trip to the Rose Bowl, where they will play Utah at 5 p.m. Monday.

Hounds fall in USL Championship playoffs

Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC made a strong push late in the season to reach the USL Championship playoffs for the fifth straight season in 2022.

The Hounds (16-10-10) blew a two-goal lead in the final 10 minutes of regulation and lost 3-2 in a shootout to Louisville FC in the USL Championship Eastern Conference semifinals.

Maulers struggle in return of USFL

The Pittsburgh Maulers made their return during the USFL reboot last spring.

While the USFL games brought about some nostalgia for Maulers fans, the on-field product was a struggle. The Maulers went 1-9 and finished last in the eight-team league, which played all of its games in Birmingham, Ala.

In the only other season a Maulers USFL franchise existed, they went 3-15 in 1984 while playing home games at Three Rivers Stadium.

The USFL is planning a second season to be played in two to four markets in 2023.

Dukes tie school record with losing streak

The Duquesne men’s basketball team finished 6-24 last season after tying a school record for consecutive losses in men’s basketball. The Dukes lost 17 straight games to end the season.

The 2022-23 season, however, has gone much better, as the Dukes opened with a 10-4 record.

Staff writers Seth Rorabaugh, Kevin Gorman and Jerry DiPaola contributed.