Booger McFarland: Ole Miss should let Lane Kiffin coach in CFP even if he leaves for LSU

Lane Kiffin’s potentially final weekend as head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels has been a doozy, and it’s only Friday.

After several weeks of speculation and rumors over whether or not he’ll leave to take another job, Kiffin led the Rebels to a 38-19 win in Friday’s Egg Bowl despite his quarterback’s jersey allegedly being stolen before the game and a fracas between the two teams taking place mid-game. The win moved Ole Miss to 11-1 and all but assured them a spot in the College Football Playoff. Afterward, Kiffin got into a confrontation with one media member before being called out by another.

As for whether or not Kiffin will still be here to coach the Rebels in the playoff, that’s the question that will presumably be answered on Saturday. With Florida having reportedly bowed out of the Lane Kiffin Sweepstakes, it’s now down to Ole Miss and LSU.

Regardless of what Kiffin decides, ABC/ESPN college football analyst Booger McFarland thinks that he should be allowed to coach the team in the CFP, even if he’s doing so as the incoming head coach of one of their biggest rivals.

“You should always finish what you start,” McFarland said on ABC Friday evening. “This program was started back in the spring. These kids have gone through summer, gone through two-a-days and all that, and now you get to a point where Ole Miss is in the playoff. That’s a fact right now. If Lane decides to leave, he should be allowed to finish what he started. The only way that you don’t allow him to do that is if there’s personal feelings that get involved, because if you’re Ole Miss, then you’re upset that he left.

“But understand it, what message are you sending to the kids that, ‘Hey, I got us here. I helped get us here, and now you’re not going to allow me because of a personal decision, because you don’t like my decision. I can’t finish what I started. I can’t speak for the Ole Miss AD.’ But here’s what I’ll say. I think it will be a travesty, that if Lane does decide to leave, that he’s not allowed to finish the job. I think the kids would want him to.

“I think if you’re Ole Miss, why would you not? The only reason I can think of Kev is because of personal feeling.”

So, all due respect to Booger, but that’s an insane notion.

First of all, it works both ways. If it’s so important that Kiffin finish the season with his players, then he could simply decide not to leave them for another school in the middle of their chase to a national championship.

Second, McFarland knows better than this that college football doesn’t work this way. If Kiffin leaves for LSU, he is officially recruiting players to another school, which means the last thing you want to do as Ole Miss is give him extended time with your players and program.

Third, could you ever imagine LSU allowed that to happen if it were the other way around? The Louisiana governor would have that coach removed from the state within an hour.

Fourth, it’s worth noting that McFarland is an LSU alumnus, which makes this a rather convenient argument.

Fifth, McFarland’s point that Kiffin should be allowed to finish what he started, despite literally being the one who would be leaving, is so absurd that your brain starts to eat itself if you think about it for too long.

Aside from the absurdity of what McFarland is requesting here, it’s worth noting that several loud voices from ABC and ESPN have been essentially clearing the way for Kiffin to leave Ole Miss in this unprecedented way. Leaving at the end of a season isn’t something new, but leaving a playoff-bound team with a legit shot at a national title is unheard of. And it’s been highly noticeable who has been absolving Kiffin of his role in this.

Nick Saban put forth the most straightforward defense, saying on last weekend’s College GameDay that “This is not a Lane Kiffin conundrum. This is a college football conundrum.”How convenient.

Stephen A. Smith has been yelling at anyone and everyone to say that Kiffin deserves the right to leave because “this is America,” even taking down fellow ESPNers to make that point.

During Friday’s Egg Bowl broadcast, ABC/ESPN broadcaster Dave Pasch put the onus on Ole Miss AD Keith Carter, saying that his ultimatum to demand an answer from Kiffin could backfire and may end up pushing him out.

And now, here’s McFarland, asking for Ole Miss to offer a grace to Kiffin that he is not showing them, because it’s the right thing to do or whatever.

There have been other voices on ESPN taking Kiffin to task, including Paul Finebaum and Chris Russo. But a lot of these defenses have been odd, to say the least, given how much slack they’ve offered to a coach who would essentially be abandoning his players and team at the worst possible time.