Having seen Will Muschamp's Angry Face in full flower at Auburn last season, I'm hardly anxious to pick a fight with him, but I am still going to disagree with something he said on Tuesday.

"Thanksgiving is a meal," Muschamp, now the head coach at South Carolina, said. "It’s not a day."

The context in which Muschamp was speaking wasn't uncommon. He was in the role of the tough, demanding football coach telling the local press in Columbia that there would be no deviation in routine as the Gamecocks prepare to play Clemson on Saturday.

He may even have been partly right. He's wrong about Thanksgiving being only a meal. You can have turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce in April if you want. Some people do. But if all they are worried about is what's being consumed and whether there is whipped topping for the pumpkin pie, that isn't Thanksgiving either. But it isn't "a day" either, if that means you are somehow a different person on a particular Thursday in November than you are on the other 364 days of the year.

If anything, Thanksgiving is an attitude. It's an awareness that, no matter where we are, we didn't get there by ourselves and we aren't standing there alone. Many people have seemed embittered lately, fearful for the future of our country or our society, regardless of political persuasion. Everyone has worries. But we also have blessings – important ones, like health and home, and superficial ones, like college football. After all, you can be thankful for the small things, too, if they make you happy, or forge a bond between friends or even let you blow off a little cathartic steam at that network color commentator who you just know hates your favorite team.

I'm going to suggest another blessing, even if it's being expressed in a sort of sideways manner by some people: the ones who suggest that because Alabama has played itself into position to make the College Football Playoff's four-team field, Saturday's game is somehow "meaningless." That's as off-base as Muschamp suggesting that Thanksgiving is just a happy combination of poultry, bread and gravy.

The Alabama-Auburn game is never "meaningless." The real marvel – and I am thankful for this – is that it has been so meaningful for the better part of 50 years, stupendously so for the last 10. Compare that to other rivalries: Georgia-Georgia Tech or Oklahoma State-Oklahoma or South Carolina-Clemson. I'm glad to concede that Florida-Florida State had a great stretch, but the history isn't as rich.

Auburn has plenty to play for on Saturday, even if a CFP berth or the SEC championship isn't on the line. A win would very possibly put the Tigers into the Sugar Bowl as the SEC's second-rated team. It would make Gus Malzahn 2-2 against Nick Saban, which would be a huge talking point in this state.

And, of course, it would be a sweet chaser to the bitter pill of Alabama's success, whatever that might be. Alabama fans now are looking at this team's place among the greatest of all time. That's not true if there is a loss to Auburn on the ledger.

So it means something to Auburn, and it should mean something to Alabama. When Nick Saban took the Alabama job and said that UA had a rival that it would work 365 days a year to dominate, he didn't mean that to include "with the occasional Thanksgiving weekend off."

I'm thankful that this state has two such fine programs, that one side or another has been in thick of national championship talk every year since 2008. And, as always, I'm thankful that you care enough about Alabama – and Auburn – to read about it in this column. So enjoy the game, and thanks.