It’s Rivalry Week in the SEC, which means it is also Thanksgiving and a time for gratitude.

Because no one likes bland food, my policy is to stay knowledgeable in the world of hot sauces and away from the world of hot takes.

But I do have one holiday hot take. And it isn’t that if you aren’t using an Egg or Tragar for your bird, you’re doing it wrong, though I will defend that view.

It’s that Thanksgiving is as close as a holiday gets to perfection. It’s joyful, hopeful and purposefully welcoming to all. It encourages what is best about all of us to come out, whether in relentless church and school food drives for the needy or in tolerating the radical views of your cousin who is majoring in gender studies at Smith College or your zany uncle still spouting his theories about the 2020 election. People are urged to come as they are, which down south is a cultural way of being. A handshake or a hug is held in higher regard than petty judgment and grievance. Kindness, generosity and neighborliness reign supreme, regardless of age. Thanksgiving is for octogenarians and toddlers alike, and it doesn’t discriminate. Gratitude isn’t just celebrated, it’s the whole point.

Gratitude, great food and football.

Football is as central to Thanksgiving as the turkey by your table’s centerpiece. From Leon Lett in the Dallas snow to Mark Sanchez’s butt fumble to the candelabras centering the Thanksgiving feasts that line the Grove ahead of the Egg Bowl, there is always football on Thanksgiving. And the games that follow Thanksgiving Day are even better.

Rivalry Week is as close as college football gets to perfection, too. A season’s worth of football memories played over one weekend.

That’s when Rivalry Week takes center stage, and we all wait for the next big moment. Whether you cheered or wept during the Kick Six to 4th and 31, SEC rivalries offer something for everyone.

That’s something every SEC fan should be grateful for, even if the passing of Thanksgiving also feels bittersweet as we bid goodbye to the best regular season in sports.

From the Palmetto Bowl to the Iron Bowl and everywhere in between, here are 10 reasons to be grateful for SEC Rivalry Week.

10. The 131st edition of Clean, Old Fashioned Hate and the Governor’s Cup

Georgia and Georgia Tech meet for the 131st time on Friday night in Athens.

You can get a ticket for as little as $4,350, according to StubHub. That’s how precious a commodity a ticket to Clean, Old Fashioned Hate is now that Brent Key has given the North Avenue Nerds a pulse on the football field. Key has been competitive in this rivalry with lesser teams. Remember, just 2 years ago, Brock Bowers scored on a 4th-and-goal to help Georgia break open a 1-score game in the 4th quarter. Kirby Smart has won 6 straight in this rivalry, and Georgia is at home, where they’ve won 30 in a row. But Georgia Tech already manhandled one College Football Playoff foe on the line of scrimmage when it beat Miami. This will be a close football game.

The winner gets the Governor’s Cup, which is unique because it is presented to the winning team’s seniors, who all get their names engraved on the Cup. There’s no other “Governor’s Cup” game in college football that engraves the names of winning seniors.

9. From hot seat to state supremacy: Shane Beamer at the Palmetto Bowl

Do I think Beamer was going to get fired if South Carolina had another losing season in 2024? No.

Would 2025 have been terribly uncomfortable? Yes.

Instead, the Gamecocks are 8-3 and are a horrible call on a Nick Emmanwori pick 6 against LSU from being 9-2 and in control of their College Football Playoff destiny.

Two seasons ago, South Carolina ended the nation’s longest home winning streak (40 games!) when it defeated Clemson, 31-30, in Death Valley.

This Saturday, the Gamecocks can send Dabo Swinney to his 4th consecutive season with 3 losses or more and cement their rise to the state’s superior football program under Beamer, who is on the precipice of accomplishing that in just 4 seasons in Columbia. A win will also assure South Carolina of a spot in a great bowl game, even if the Playoff Committee does not believe the Gamecocks’ body of work deserves Playoff consideration.

8. Diego Pavia’s shot at another Music City miracle

Based on recruiting rankings and hype, the matchup between 5-star recruit Nico Iamaleava and Pavia, a lightly recruited junior college quarterback who arrived in the SEC by way of New Mexico State, doesn’t seem like much of a matchup at all. It sounds a little on the nose for Vanderbilt and Tennessee, one of the SEC’s most lopsided rivalries.

But Pavia has been the better quarterback by some distance in 2024. The Vanderbilt transfer has more touchdown passes, fewer interceptions and more wins over ranked opponents than Iamaleava.

Pavia has already orchestrated a win over No. 1 Alabama in Nashville this season. A win Saturday to end Tennessee’s Playoff hopes? That would be even sweeter.

7. Kentucky’s win streak over Louisville and the ghost of Stephen Johnson

Mark Stoops and the Wildcats have won 7 consecutive Governor’s Cup games over Louisville, a streak very much in jeopardy ahead of Saturday’s tilt at Kroger Field. Given the odds that streak ends against a quality Cardinals team, perhaps a nod of gratitude to Kentucky legend Johnson, who started Big Blue’s run of dominance, is warranted?

With the Wildcats as heavy underdogs in 2017, Johnson outdueled Heisman winner and eventual two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, driving Kentucky 60 yards for the winning field goal after a Jackson fumble late in the 4th quarter. Johnson’s Kentucky career was always  limited by injuries, and his college career ended on a late hit in the Music City Bowl in 2017. But for one Saturday, Johnson, now a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, was perfect, and Kentucky beat the Cardinals, 41-38.

6. The Kick 6

Still astounding. 11 years later.

5. DJ Lagway’s first Florida-Florida State game

Gators fans have more to be grateful for than any 6-5 team in recent memory.

A September to forget in Gainesville has become a November to remember, with Florida claiming 2 of the nation’s best wins this month in upending then-No. 22 LSU and then-No. 8 Ole Miss in back-to-back weeks.

At the Billy Napier household on Thanksgiving and in rural central Florida basements everywhere, the biggest reason for Florida’s gratitude will be sensational freshman quarterback Lagway.

The 2023 Gatorade High School Player of the Year and High School Heisman winner, Lagway is unbeaten in games he has started and finished (4). The freshman leads the SEC in average depth of target (11.7), explosive pass plays of 30 yards or more (15) and explosive pass success rate (62%), and he ranks 2nd in average yards per completion, behind only Ole Miss star Jaxson Dart, whom he outplayed last Saturday.

This weekend, Lagway gets his 1st taste of the Florida-Florida State rivalry, one of the most bitter rivalry games in the SEC and, for a decade, one of the most seismic games in college football. From 1990-2000, Florida and Florida State played with both teams ranked in the top 10 on 9 occasions. That’s the most for any SEC rivalry game ever. This year, with 2-9 Florida State struggling and the Gators barely bowl eligible, the stakes aren’t as high. Just don’t tell that to Florida fans desperate for another rivalry win and the program’s 1st winning season since 2020.

4. 4th-and-31

No, this wasn’t just a bad dream, Auburn fans.

3.  Egg Bowl tailgates

If The Grove doesn’t offer the best tailgating scene in college football, it is inarguably in that conversation.

From the southern hospitality and scenery on a campus where they redshirt Miss Americas to the ornate table settings with buffet-style spreads fit for royalty, it’s hard to top The Grove.

Like most places, Ole Miss saves its best for last, especially in years like this one when it hosts the Egg Bowl.

It’s all a reminder of how we’re grateful for tailgate scenes, friendships forged through football and food this Thanksgiving season. We hope you are, too.

As a bonus, here’s a tailgate recipe from Mary Elizabeth Hollins, an Ole Miss alum who will set up shop in The Grove on Saturday, as she and her family have for the past 32 seasons. If you like cheese and sausage, you’ll love cream cheese sausage balls the way Mary Elizabeth makes them:

In an electric mixer, combine pork sausage, Bisquick mix and your favorite cheese (Mary Elizabeth recommends a quality cheddar or a colby jack). Using a cookie scoop, scoop the mixture into balls and place the balls on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown. Garnish with parsley and herbs and serve with Mary Elizabeth’s homemade dipping sauce (1/4 cup stone ground mustard, 2 tablespoons of an amber ale or an IPA, 2 teaspoons of honey a teaspoon of salt). Enjoy!

2. The Army ROTC Egg Bowl Run

The 121st Egg Bowl will be played on Black Friday this season, with Ole Miss more than happy to send hated State to its 1st winless SEC season since Jackie Sherrill’s probation-stricken group went 0-8 in 2002. While any number of Egg Bowl entries would work, does anything spur gratitude more than the service of brave young men and women? Every season since 2013, a series of ROTC cadets from both Mississippi State and Ole Miss have run the Egg Bowl game ball from one campus to the other.

This season, Bulldog cadets from the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines started the run at 5 a.m. this past Sunday, ferrying the football from Starkville to Calhoun City, where they met the famed Magnolia Battalion ROTC from Ole Miss. The Rebel runners then made the 40-mile jaunt from Calhoun City to Oxford, where they delivered the ball to the Lyceum steps at 8 p.m. Sunday.

A joint tailgate event is held for all participating cadets on gameday, celebrating their service. Talk about putting gratitude over difference.

1. Texas and Texas A&M. Together again, with history on the line.

Let’s hope this is just the beginning of this rivalry establishing itself as one of the can’t-miss moments of SEC football season.

There’s so much to be thankful for here, but the fact this game is back is reason enough.

Depending on allegiance, the 13-year hiatus of this longstanding in-state feud was sparked either by Texas A&M’s departure for the SEC or Texas’ willed refusal to play the Aggies as a non-conference opponent.

On Saturday, none of that matters anymore. It’s Texas and Texas A&M in the most meaningful edition of this game since __________________________.

For both teams, a win would be its best of the season. For Texas, it would be its only win over a ranked opponent.

An SEC Championship Game berth is on the line.

A College Football Playoff spot might be.

All of that is before you get to state bragging rights, which matter not only in recruiting but in office kitchenettes, living rooms and Texas oil fields.

A grand old rivalry getting college football’s greatest Rivalry Week stage? It’s hard not to feel grateful about that.