Both teams in this year’s Sun Bowl have similar backgrounds.

Oregon State won and lost its share of wild games this season. There were close wins over Southern California, Arizona State and Arizona, and a last-second loss at Utah.

However, Pittsburgh has the Beavers topped in the theatrics. The Panthers used five fourth-quarter comebacks to earn a majority of their nine wins.

“We play well as a team,” Pittsburgh senior linebacker Scott McKillop said. “We matured in a lot of areas. We jelled as a team. We had people step up you didn’t expect. And the fourth quarter means something to us.”

There were triumphs over West Virginia, Iowa, Syracuse and South Florida in those comebacks. The highlight was a quadruple overtime victory over Notre Dame.

“It’s the fight and determination,” Pitt running back LeSean McCoy said. “There were a lot of games we were down, and we fought back to win the game. We stressed all year to not worry about the time or the score, but play. We gave it our all no matter what, like in the overtime Notre Dame game.”

McKillop attributes the team’s strong finishes to the character of the players, and a change in the strength and conditioning staff. Offseason conditioning was more difficult than before.

Players ran up a steep 300-yard hill nearby campus called Flagstaff Hill on a weekly basis in the summer. A competition started among them to be first, and that approach carried into the season.

“We were doing things in the offseason that were crazy, but we knew it was going to pay off,” McKillop said. “Every time I pass that hill now, I turn the opposite way and don’t look at it. What they were trying to do is to see who is a clunker and who are survivors.”

Another similarity to the Beavers is having a former NFL coach who reworked the program after a Fiesta Bowl appearance.

For Pittsburgh it’s Dave Wannstedt, a Pitt alum, who coached the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins.

The Beavers have Mike Riley, a Corvallis High alum with childhood ties to OSU, who coached the San Diego Chargers.

The Panthers have just started to come out of a lull. They didn’t play in a bowl game Wannstedt’s first three years.

Wannstedt was on the hot seat, even though he received a contract extension before the end of last season. The extension gave the program an initial boost to upset rival West Virginia in the last game of the 2007 season.

“The attitude around here has changed,” McCoy said. “Our coach takes so much heat, but it’s the character of the team. We want to get the program back to where it was.”

A season-opening loss to Bowling Green made matters worse for the Panthers. However, the players looked at it as a reality check and went on a five-game winning streak.

There were setbacks in the heart of the Big East Conference season against Rutgers and Cincinnati, but the Panthers fought through the disappointments.

“Our team bought into our press clips a little bit before the season,” McKillop said. “We thought we were there, but we needed a lot of improvement. Our seniors and leaders stepped up. We had a nasty taste in our mouths. We didn’t want to have another Bowling Green. We knew how poor we played and didn’t want that to happen again.”

The Panthers fought back to a second-place finish in the conference behind Cincinnati. They tapped into that blue collar mentality of being from The Steel City.

A win over the Beavers and the program can win 10 games for the first time since winning 11 in 1981.

From where the Panthers have been in recent years this Sun Bowl appearance will be savored. They look at this as the launching pad to great success.

“It’s very important,” McKillop said. “I was fortunate to be here my first year in the (2005) Fiesta Bowl. It was a pretty ugly game (losing to Utah). And the next three years were unsuccessful getting back to a bowl game. This is big for the team, and good for seniors to go to a bowl game and go out with a bang.”