LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville offensive tackle Greg Tomczyk has heard the stories. He's seen the pictures.

The evidence of arguably the greatest win in Cardinals history — an upset of West Virginia on a raucous Thursday night in 2006 that propelled the Cardinals into the national title hunt — is scattered throughout the program's football complex.

It was only three years ago. It seems longer.

The Cardinals (1-2) will try to recreate some of the magic tonight when they host Pittsburgh (3-1) in the Big East opener for both teams. School officials are encouraging fans to wear all-black, the same promotion they used against Pat White and the Mountaineers on that chilly November night that thrust the program into the national spotlight.

"I think from that there's been a little bit of an aura around here with Friday night, Thursday night games," Tomczyk said.

There just hasn't been as much success.

Louisville comes in riding a seven-game losing streak to Football Bowl Subdivision opponents. And while the Cardinals have shown promise during early season losses to Kentucky and Utah, the same problems that hampered them last year have stuck around, namely holding onto the ball.

Louisville is minus-13 in turnovers during the streak. Three early turnovers against Utah last week quickly put the Cardinals in a 20-point hole from which they couldn't escape. They gave it away a whopping five times in a 41-7 loss to the Panthers last year.

"We've got to do a better job of taking care of the football," coach Steve Kragthorpe said.

It won't be easy against the Panthers, who are 13th in the country in turnover margin (plus-6) and fourth in the nation in sacks (4.25 per game). Four players have at least two sacks already this season and the Panthers are expecting to get senior linebacker Adam Gunn back after missing the last two games with an ankle injury.

Pittsburgh has made a habit under coach Dave Wannstedt of losing winnable games early in the year, blunting momentum. It appeared the Panthers were finally past it after dominating Youngstown State, Buffalo and Navy and taking a 14-point lead in the second half last week against North Carolina State.

Then the bottom fell out.

The Wolfpack rallied to score 21 points over the final 18 minutes to pull off the upset and prevent the Panthers from cracking the Top 25.

Wannstedt blamed the loss on some spectacular plays by N.C. State quarterback Russell Wilson, untimely penalties and a series of defensive breakdowns. The Wolfpack rolled up over 500 yards of total offense as Wilson dominated, passing for 322 yards and four touchdowns and adding another 91 yards on the ground.