00:00Doug Carr, Scott Anderson, 97.1, open lines, 248-539-9797, open the shell with some Tiger
00:07talk if you want to keep going that direction.
00:09We will.
00:10In the meantime, we shifted to some NFL discussion with the Blitz thingy, and I want to bring
00:16it home and talk some Lions.
00:18I've got a question for you.
00:21The Drew Petsing hire, what do you think, actually, I'll answer the question.
00:29Want me to step outside?
00:30No.
00:31Okay.
00:32I feel like his biggest qualification for this job is he worked with Ben Johnson.
00:45I think this is an example of trying to recapture offensively what they had when Ben
00:51Johnson was the offensive coordinator.
00:55And Ben Johnson and Drew Petsing worked together at Boston College.
01:00The first year, they were both grad assistants.
01:02The second year, Ben Johnson got the tight ends coaching position, and Drew Petsing worked
01:08with him as a grad assistant that year.
01:11Everybody knows they got close.
01:12Everybody knows that Petsing was a groomsman in Ben Johnson's wedding.
01:17This is an interesting hire.
01:20I used to joke on the show about the Sean McVay coaching tree that it got so bad with everybody
01:28talking about, oh, he worked with McVay, he worked with McVay, that his mailman would
01:33get a coaching interview.
01:35If you drove past his house, you'd at least get a coordinator interview.
01:38Any ties they could come up with with Sean McVay led people to want to hire anybody that had
01:47McVay aura.
01:49And now the Lions are sort of doing it with Ben Johnson.
01:53And Ben Johnson had a very successful first year with the Chicago Bears.
01:58It would certainly be a lot easier to sort of root for our former guy if he went just
02:03about anywhere else.
02:04I don't know if it'd be any different.
02:06He went to Green Bay, but it it it's irritating that he is with a arch rival organization.
02:14But is there something here with Drew Petsing that that makes this a smart hire that they
02:24are trying to just recapture Ben Johnson aura and Ben Johnson, you know, thinking and play
02:31calling and play design?
02:34Or is this a bit of a stretch?
02:38I hope it's just a stretch.
02:41I think, look, even though Ben Johnson's moved down to the Bears and I can't stand him now,
02:46he's presenting on grotto with me because he chose the job of the Bears.
02:49He chose violence.
02:50I didn't like that.
02:53I respect what he is as a coach.
02:54I mean, he was a great offensive mind with this team.
02:57But I also can't help to think that he's an extension of what Dan Campbell is.
03:01So I think anybody that gets an interview with the Lions coaching staff for to be a member
03:06of the coaching staff, I mean, they have to pass his approval and he's going to have to
03:10say some things that are going to appeal to Dan Campbell.
03:13And if there's some of the same philosophies that Dan shared with Ben Johnson, then OK,
03:17that's that's fine.
03:18I think his qualifications are that he has worked with, you know, receivers and quarterbacks
03:25and tight ends in his career as an offensive coach before before becoming a coordinator
03:31with Arizona.
03:33And having to do things in Arizona could not have been easy for, you know, three seasons
03:38he was there as the OC because they had nothing to work with.
03:42You've got a quarterback that's a bit of a video game player, but literally and figuratively,
03:47but also that he doesn't have anybody to throw to over there, you know?
03:52So it's like I'm not sure how that's going to translate here where now you've got a wealth
03:58of riches to work with, with the, the, the shiny pieces that are here in Detroit.
04:04Hopefully it just means that, Hey, it unlocks everything.
04:06And this is, this is what he could have been, but I think he's got a pedigree from working
04:11with different organizations of, of building himself up.
04:14He's got to be a smart guy.
04:16You know, he coached it in the Ivy league for a few years, even though he's not an Ivy
04:20league guy, but I mean, still, I think that's a reflection there.
04:23So I think there's a lot that just whatever he's preaching resonates with Dan Campbell.
04:28And it may just be a coincidence with the whole Ben Johnson thing, but I sure hope that
04:31just being buddies with Ben Johnson has nothing to do with it.
04:35I don't think it's being buddies.
04:36I think it's the fact that they work together, maybe at a formative years where a lot of their
04:41coaching philosophies were, were, were, were formed.
04:46They were at the same place.
04:48They were at the same place in their careers and they were in the same place philosophically
04:53and they'll bring in, you know, I don't want to, you know, if he's Ben Johnson light or
04:59he's Ben Johnson 2.0, I hope he's not Timu Ben Johnson.
05:03I, you know, I, like we want this to be, it feels to me like they're trying to get back
05:09to things that, that were working before the lions lost Ben Johnson, the John Morton
05:16era last year.
05:17I don't know if people noticed about midway through the season, you perhaps heard a strong
05:24change in the tenor of the discussion of John Morton on the air.
05:27And I thought it was starting to show that in press conferences as much as much on the
05:34field, the John Morton wasn't cut for this job.
05:37And it it's, you know, Petsing is a real interesting hire to me because of what philosophically he
05:47could bring to the table.
05:48And, you know, I'm not expecting him to be exactly Ben Johnson, but if at these formative
05:55years in their career, they developed similar philosophies that showed themselves in the
06:01interview process, I could see why they hired him.
06:05And we will find out if he is a version, a different, but similar to Ben Johnson.
06:14Or if this is a bit of a Hail Mary, oh boy, we lost Ben Johnson.
06:19What's the next best thing?
06:21Can, can this guy get it done?
06:23I, you know, it's, it's one of the most important hires in Detroit sports in the last year is
06:29what is this guy going to bring to the table?
06:32And, and, you know, I, I'm, I'm, I'm cautiously optimistic, but we won't know for a while.
06:40It's interesting you say that because think about what we've had in the last year.
06:43We're going to have a new GM for the Red Wings.
06:44Yep.
06:45You've got a new head coach at Michigan state, a new head coach at Michigan.
06:48Yep.
06:49New offensive coordinator with the lions.
06:51Yep.
06:51It's a lot of new hires.
06:52There's been a lot of stuff going on.
06:54A lot of stuff.
06:55And, and, but if you ask people, I mean, I guess it just depends what your favorite sport
07:00is.
07:00You know, which one that you most want to work out.
07:03If you're a big Michigan fan, you'll say Kyle Whittingham.
07:05If you're a big Michigan state fan, you'll say Pat Fitzgerald.
07:07If you're a big right wing fan, you'll say whoever they hire.
07:09But, but the lions are such a big story in Detroit that there's just so much riding on
07:16this.
07:16Well, and I think maybe his calling card is going to be that they developed Trey McBride
07:22into being one of the best tight ends, if not the best tight end of football at Arizona
07:25under his watch.
07:26They just kept feeding them the football.
07:29And maybe that's the number one thing you look at that he can say, well, I did this
07:33and we had nothing else to work with, but boy, our tight end sure showed up.
07:37Obviously he's got more to work with here.
07:39And that means more is going to be expected of him.
07:42I mean, and this is also, this is a huge, huge hire for Dan camp because he got it right
07:49with Ben Johnson, but he got it wrong with the other two hires.
07:51So this is offensive coordinator number four, if you don't include himself.
07:56So he's got to get this one right because if he doesn't, I mean, if the offense isn't
08:02going, is this team going to win nine games?
08:05If the offense isn't clicking, probably not.
08:09Yeah.
08:10I mean, the offense and they're already hampered the whole idea of the defense getting guys
08:17back as this season goes on, hopefully both safeties.
08:21The offense has to carry the day.
08:23Like the offense has to be at its best.
08:262, 4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 97, 97.
08:28It's Carson Anderson.
08:29We got open lines here on 97.1.
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