Thanksgiving week means family, food and a whole bunch of football
Happy Sunday, and welcome to the Daily Briefing. This is trending sports writer Nick Gray, writing to you after a tremendous day of college football. My gosh, Rivalry Week delivered the goods again. (Unless you live in Middle Tennessee, and like anchors and the color gold.)
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Hope y'all had a great Thanksgiving week! It's one of my favorite weeks of the year, and not just because of the family time and good food. College football and college basketball is always at full throat during this weekend each year.
We missed out on Thanksgiving basketball tournaments and Rivalry Week as a whole last year, and you got reminders why it's always well-awaited. In fact, the Michigan upset win against Ohio State had a local tie with Michigan starting quarterback Cade McNamara, whose brother, Jake, led Page to a comeback victory on Friday that sent the Patriots to the Class 5A title game. Tennessean high school sports editor Tom Kreager spoke to the McNamara family following their busy two days.
"(Friday night) you had adults crying because of the win," Gary McNamara, the father of Cade and Jake, said Saturday. "And (Saturday) you had adults crying in the stands because of a win."
In Knoxville, the Vols stomped Vanderbilt 45-21 on Saturday. The win moved the Vols to 7-5 and possibly in position for a solid bowl game, while the Commodores ended the year at 2-10. How did Clark Lea grade out in Game 12 of Year 1 as the head coach at Vandy? Aria Gerson, the Tennessean's Vandy beat writer, evaluated his season finale.
As mentioned earlier, the Friday after Thanksgiving also means the Tennessee high school football semifinals for Division I. Several Nashville-area schools will be playing in title games next weekend in Chattanooga, including East Nashville. The Eagles advanced to their first-ever state title game, and will face mighty Alcoa in the Class 3A title game on Friday. Tom Kreager had the emotional story of East Nashville star Amarion Ford and his road to this point.
OK, enough sports for now. There's a big Titans game on Sunday, and read our game coverage and all the rest of the staff's hard work during a holiday weekend at Tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Thanksgiving week means family, food and a whole bunch of football
