BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Pittsburgh quarterback Tino Sunseri says there’s a bright side to the program’s latest coaching change: The Panthers at least have been in this position before.

The Panthers are playing in their second straight BBVA Compass Bowl on Saturday against SMU, and each time they’ve had an interim coach.

One year ago, Pittsburgh was looking to replace Dave Wannstedt. Interim coach Phil Bennett led the Panthers to a bowl win over Kentucky.

This year, Pitt already has hired Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst to replace Todd Graham, who left for Arizona State.

Chryst is expected to be at Legion Field for Saturday’s game. Defensive coordinator Keith Patterson is the interim coach.

“It’s not like we haven’t been in this situation before,” Sunseri said. “We know how to handle ourselves.”

Sunseri said he has told his teammates they must look out for themselves.

“A lot of guys have NFL aspirations and I’ve told them you need to be professional,” Sunseri said. “You need to be able to handle this kind of stuff. You need to be able to study tape on your own. You need to become a man and grow up and take it upon yourself to study the game and kind of fall in on everybody else’s shoulders and come together.”

As a twist to Saturday’s game, SMU coach June Jones almost was hired by Arizona State before the school chose Graham.

Patterson has his next job lined up. He was announced Wednesday as the new defensive coordinator at Arkansas State.

Patterson said he didn’t was caught off guard by Graham’s decision to leave Pittsburgh after less than one year on the job.

“I’ll be honest with you, it took me a while to sort through it all,” Patterson said. “It was unexpected, of course.”

The Panthers are hoping to overcome the chaos just as they did in their last visit to Legion Field when they were motivated to win for Wannstedt, who was forced to resign.

This year’s change was different. When he was denied permission by Pitt to talk with Arizona State, Graham quit and used texts and emails to tell his players of his decision.