Full Plate Of College Football

Just looking at the Saturday's slate -- Boston College-Notre Dame, Georgia-Florida and Texas-Nebraska just to name a few -- made my head spin.

And when the day was over and four of the nation's unbeaten teams lost, I felt like I was going to burst into flames.

I left Kenan Stadium after North Carolina's 59-7 loss to Maryland on Saturday, hoping that result wasn't indicative of how the rest of the day's games would turn out.

It was not.

I made it home in time for the fourth quarter of the Notre Dame-B.C. tussle.

Despite pulling within seven with just more than two minutes to play, the Irish's luck ran out as the Eagles won 14-7, all but ruining the Irish's hopes of a national championship.

I took a quick break from the action to call my friend Will, a 2002 BC graduate, to get his take on the game.

"We poop on Notre Dame," he declared.

After a quick chit-chat, I returned to the television for more football.

I switched over to ABC just as N.C. State quarterback Philip Rivers found Jerricho Cotchery in the corner of the end zone. State seemed to have all the momentum, and I thought they'd run away with it.

I was wrong.

It wasn't until later in the evening that I saw Gordon Clinkscale's brilliant 14-yard cutback run into the endzone to spoil the Wolfpack's bid for an unbeaten season.

I'm getting dizzy at this point -- the No. 10 and No. 4 teams have both lost, and it's only 7 p.m. -- but that's probably just the carbon monoxide leak in my apartment.

So, two games have ended in an exciting fashion, surely it can't continue.

An hour break followed in which I foolishly thought I might get something constructive done. Instead I just drank hot chocolate and ate Nilla Wafers.

But the rest and nourishment was needed because a big night awaited.

At 8 p.m., there were three games on simultaneously: Georgia-Florida on ESPN, Pittsburgh-Virginia Tech on ESPN2 and Texas-Nebraska on Fox Sports.

The question wasn't, which one do I watch. It was, how do I watch all three?

I knew I could pull it off because I'm a champion channel surfer, but three games at once is no small task.

So here are my options:

I could turn the TV on in my bedroom and run upstairs every few minutes to check the other game, while watching one of them downstairs. But that's exercise, and I don't dig on that.

I could bring the upstairs TV downstairs and watch two games at once, but moving the TV sounds like work, another thing to which I'm opposed.

Or I could just flip from game to game and follow the ticker at the bottom of the screen for updates.

I chose the latter.

I eased into the UGa.-Florida game, but kept a close eye on Nebraska-Texas. The Cornhuskers hadn't lost at home since the Longhorns last visit in 1998, and watching a Chris Simms implosion is always good fun.

But as Bulldog placekicker Billy Bennett kept shanking field goals, that game became more and more enticing.

On the Deuce, though,Virginia Tech couldn't pull away from Pittsburgh.

Back on Fox Sports, Chris Simms was having a career day.

And then it all happened.

Texas' Nathan Vasher picked off Jamal Lord's pass near the endzone to end Nebraska's 26-game home-winning streak; David Greene was sacked to give Florida another win against UGa.; and Va. Tech QB Bryan Randall's hail mary came up about 20 yards short to give Pittsburgh the upset.

I didn't burst into flames during all that, and once the carbon monoxide wore off, all was well. What a great day.

Thank you schedule makers.

Tim Candon can be reached at tcandon@aol.com.