Booger McFarland on LSU Football Making the College Football Playoff: 'It's Time'

McFarland believes the 2025 season will be critical under Brian Kelly, hoping to return to the LSU standard.

Oct 17, 2022; Inglewood, California, USA; Booger McFarland on the ESPN Monday Night Football Countdown set before the game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Denver Broncos at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Former LSU defensive lineman Booger McFarland understands the expectations in Baton Rouge when it comes to contending for National Championships.

McFarland, who now works as an ESPN analysts covering the National Football League, believes the program hasn't lived up to the LSU standard across the last few seasons.

He hopped on "Andy & Ari On3" to discuss the current College Football Playoff and where he hopes LSU can be heading into the 2025 season.

“You know what? I don’t want to imagine it. I want to see it,” said McFarland. “That’s what I text (Brian Kelly) all the time. Like, it’s time, you know. I don’t want to imagine.”

Kelly is 29-11 across three seasons at the helm of the LSU program, and after going 9-4 in 2024, McFarland is ready for change in Baton Rouge.

The change: Get back to the LSU standard and be successful in 2025.

“He knows. Like, BK understands where he’s at,” McFarland said. “You know, every coach that comes to LSU? I tell them all the same thing – I’m loyal to the three letters, not to you. So you’re always going to get honesty from me because I am loyal to my program and I’m loyal because I want to see those kids and I want to see LSU be successful.

"So, when I text any of them, going all the way back to Les Miles and even now to BK, I text them, from a football analyst standpoint, what I see and it’s the pure honest truth. And sometimes it’s, ‘Hey, man, great job. I love how you did x, y, z’ or sometimes it’s, ‘You know what, this was poor. What you did, how we played, what we’re doing is not good enough.’

“I think, as a coach, you can respect it, or at least I hope he does. BK and I got a good relationship. I think he has openly said he came to LSU for an opportunity to win a championship. So, like, what I’m saying and what I text him? There’s no secret. Like, what’s already known doesn’t need to be said.”

LSU will return several key components for the 2025 season including Garrett Nussmeier, Whit Weeks, Harold Perkins and Aaron Anderson, but the program has also knocked it out of the park in the NCAAA Transfer Portal.

LSU boasts the No. 1 portal class in America headlined by multiple immediate impact pieces heading to town for the 2025 season.

“Yeah, I mean, everybody’s going after it. There’s 17,000 kids in the portal. Like, if you can’t put together a roster, that means either a) you don’t know how or b) you don’t have any money. I don’t think LSU is in either one of those positions. So, let’s see how this roster shapes,” McFarland said. “You know, LSU’s got – I think they’re going to wind up having 15 or 18 guys out of the portal.”

LSU's 2025 season will begin with a challenge against Dabo Swinney and the Clemson Tigers in Week 1.

McFarland discussed what lies ahead in the "fake Death Valley" heading into next season.

“A trip to the fake-Death Valley is coming. I think it’s Labor Day weekend – LSU at Clemson. And, yes, I said the fake-Death Valley because, the following year, they come to the real-Death Valley. So we’ll see. We’ll see,” McFarland said. “I know we’re six months away or seven or however many months away but I can’t wait for that one.”

All eyes will be on Kelly and Co. heading into the 2025 season in what many are already labeling a "College Football Playoff or bust" year for the Bayou Bengals.

More LSU News:

LSU Adds Commitments From Seven Top-100 Transfers in the Portal

LSU Dishes Out Offer to No. 1 Quarterback in America

Nick Saban Calls LSU Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier a "Sleeper" Ahead of 2024 Season

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