Earlier this week I did my best to discern notable "artists and mechanics" from the 2007 crop of college football players and coaches.  The concept was developed by Sun Sports TV's Whit Watson.  It's his baby, so I invited him to respond.

He has now done so, and you can find it at his blog: Artists and Mechanics 2007 (Chapter 1)

Notable excerpts:

While CFR likes to take the theory national, pondering the Artist vs. Mechanic tendencies of, for example, Pete Carroll and Jimmy Clausen, I know where my bread is buttered. Thankfully, so does Brian, and that's why he put up a list of Florida football personalities for me to break down. There was also the tantalizing offer to assign some of my fellow Sun Sports personalities into the "Artist" or "Mechanic" camp.

Create fresh content for two blogs at once, and possibly rip Mike Bianchi in the process? Is today Christmas?

Heh.  We're always happy to deliver presents early.

Randy Shannon: Mechanic. I've met the coach a few times, including our interview for "In My Own Words" this summer, and he strikes me as a by-the-book dude. While he's an exceptional recruiter -- a skill that screams Artist -- his attention to discipline, doing the little things correctly, and hammering the details betrays him as a Mechanic. If you spend some time learning about his background, how he lost several family members under tragic circumstances and escaped the violent streets of Liberty City in Miami as the first member of his family to graduate from college, his Mechanic tendencies start to make sense. When faced with life-or-death choices, as Shannon surely was in his youth, adhering to a self-imposed set of rules can be a powerful tool for survival. Randy Shannon's meticulous nature got him out of the projects and into the head coaching job at Miami. He's the Mechanic's Mechanic. Is that what the Hurricane football program needed? The administration at UM is banking on it.

There certainly has never been a Miami coach quite like Shannon.

Jimbo Fisher, Rick Trickett: I group these two new assistants at Florida State together because, as the post at CFR asks, "are there any Artists among FSU's new coaches?" I would say "yes" to both, simply because the perception of these two men in particular is that of "guru," and gurus are wheelhouse Artists. Both Fisher and Trickett may indeed be inventive and/or process-oriented in the manner of a Mechanic, but that's not why they were hired -- they were hired to make a splashy statement to Florida State fans, boosters, and players that the Seminoles are serious. Their reputation precedes them. They bring cache' and credibility to the FSU football program. They're rock stars in the world of assistant coaches. Thus, Artists.

This was very surprising.  They strike me as the farthest thing from artists (Fisher rarely gets more descriptive about his offense other than to say it's "multiple"), but the exact reason they're in Tallahassee logically is rooted in a demand for artistic freedom lacking under the previous coaches.

Tim Tebow: I thought long and hard about this one, and I'm going with Artist. Anybody who can execute the jump-pass in a critical SEC matchup against LSU cannot be anything else. One of Urban Meyer's biggest concerns about Tebow this year will be keeping him healthy -- not because of any weakness in Florida's offensive line, which happens to be one of the best and most experienced in the Southeastern Conference -- but because Tebow is a linebacker in a quarterback's body. The young man simply likes to hit people. He's all about the experience, which is part of the definition of Artist. He's just a football player, the highest compliment a head coach can bestow. It's interesting that the Gator coaching staff has spent a lot of time working with Tebow on his throwing motion this summer. They're trying to work a little Mechanic into him. But ask yourself this -- if you had to compare the kid to any quarterback in the NFL right now, who's the first guy that comes to mind?

Right. Brett Favre. Not based on skill, yet, but based on sheer love of the game. Tebow and Favre both play football as if they were on an empty sandlot, two-hand touch, gotta be home before it gets dark and Mom yells at us. Artists.

Yeh Tebow was more vexing than one would assume at first glance.  Everyone has both an artists and a mechanic within them, but Tebow's chameleon act strikes me as something rare and perhaps transcendant.  It would explain why he's already a God in Gainesville.

Myron Rolle: Another tough one. His "renaissance man" reputation is well-earned. Rolle is an excellent student, having played his high school football at the Hun School in New Jersey (average SAT score: 1200), where he earned just about every academic honor you can imagine. In fact, he enters the 2007 football season as an athletic sophomore but very nearly an academic senior -- he's three hours shy of completing enough classes to finish his junior year. FSU's bio page calls Rolle "one of the most academically advanced players in college football history," and it's hard to argue otherwise.

But despite all that, despite his dream of becoming a Rhodes scholar and a doctor, despite the fact that he played the lead role in "Fiddler On The Roof" as a high school senior, I'm going with Mechanic, and here's why: do you have any idea how hard it is to maintain that level of academic excellence and play as a starter on a Division I football team? His time management skills have got to be legendary. Spring football, summer workouts, preseason two-a-days, travel to and from games during the season -- and he's still an honor roll guy? That's impressive. It requires exacting attention to detail, self-discipline, and diligence. His days must be scheduled to the minute. Mechanic.

I'm sold.

And today's wild card:

Mike Bianchi: Artist. As I have written here before, I love the fact that Mikey always sides with the righteous underdog in his columns. His favorite quote: "The job of the sports columnist is to watch the battle from the mountaintop and then ride down and bayonet the wounded." Tilting at windmills is a favorite hobby of Artists.

And me? As much as I'd love to think of myself as an Artist, I have to face reality: Mechanic. I'm all about the research. For me, live television is easy once you know you've done the homework. I'm very much a "measure twice, cut once" kind of guy. One of my personal favorite quotes came from the late Ronald Reagan, who liked to say, "trust, but verify." And by the way, it took me three days to write this entry.

Hilarious quote from Bianchi.  I gotta memorize that one.

My sincere thanks once again to Whit Watson for devoting some of his limited time to this exchange.  I love sending praise his way but Whit truly deserves it.  The guy is one of the more capable television personalities and a legitimate thinker who is also gracious with his time.  Be sure and check out his regularly updated blog and also watch him on Sun Sports if you're living in or near Florida.

***
Previously at College Football Resource:

Artists and Mechanics
Artists and Mechanics 2006
Whit's Response: Artists and Mechanics
Artists and Mechanics 2007

I did this last year and with another year of college football it's worth another try as we head into the final week before the 2007-2008 college football season.

1. Artists and Mechanics 2006
2. Whit's Response: Artists and Mechanics 2006

See above for a full background of what follows.  In brief: Sun Sports TV's Whit Watson came up with an intuitive but rarely discussed concept called Artists and Mechanics.  He wrote about it, fleshed it out a bit and that's kind of how this internet thing works.

In short, I believe that the world is split into two groups: Artists and Mechanics. Some might call it right-brain and left-brain, but I think Artists and Mechanics is much more lyrical and descriptive. Artists tend to be big-picture types, unconcerned with mundane details. They're strong on the "why," but weaker on the "how." Process is irrelevant; experience is everything...

...A Mechanic, on the other hand, thrives on process. The "how" supercedes the "why." Details bring joy. Learning how to accomplish a new task is a thrill...

...Artists need Mechanics, and vice versa. One cannot survive without the other.

I saw it, loved it, responded and he was kind enough to respond back with his takes.  I looked at college football's big picture, and he nailed down the Florida schools and dabbled with SEC/ACC notables.

Time to try it again, as it's a new year and we have new names and faces to talk about.  I'm going to write this up and pass it along to Whit Watson and if he's got the time (he's a busy man right about now), he'll send us a reply to which I'll gladly reproduce on here.  Sound good?

***
There's no better way to start out than talking about the preseason favorite USC Trojans.  Although he's lauded for his aggressiveness and risk-taking, USC coach Pete Carroll is a mechanic.  The man is still in love with the NFL (nothing if not a mechanic's league) and conservative, let the defense win it football.  Notably, he's edged even further towards the mechanic camp in recent years, transforming the vision of the USC offense from Norm Chow's artist's interpretation to a more grinding pro style.

His right hand man in the new offense is Steve Sarkisian.  Although a Chow "disciple", Sarkisian speaks a lot about execution and mastery of an increasingly complex system.  Their system is now less about daydreams and "what could be" and more about NFL 101 and "what we're going to do".

Down in the Bayou, I've got a funny feeling that LSU coach Les Miles is a bit more of an artist than he lets on.  Behind that bravado and huff-puffing is a guy who 1)wears his hat real funny and 2)hired freaking Gary Crowton to run an SEC offense.  That takes some imagination.  His mind was also flexible enough to permit both a pass-happy and run-happy offense in separate years at Oklahoma State.  Dogma is the realm of mechanics and Miles doesn't strike me as a repeatedly dogmatic person.

I talked last year about Arkansas coach Houston Nutt being an artist - that hasn't changed.  Whit Watson has alluded to how pairing artists with mechanics can create a synergistic harmony.  Well, pairing artists with artists or mechanics with mechanics may be bad medicine.  I think that may have been part of the issue last year with former offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn (artist!).  Malzahn liked his art one way (the forward pass), Nutt liked his the other way (run, run, run).  Thus: splittsville.

Malzahn's gone, but Arkansas has dusted off some old school tricks and made them modern with its Wildcat offense (now renamed WildHog).  Tell me that's not an artist at work?

New Alabama coach Nick Saban is an almost overbearing Mechanic.  Last year I said the 'Tide was too mechanical.  So what'd they do?  They went out and got another mechanic.  Here's hoping new offensive coordinator Major Applewhite is an artist to balance things out.

Now, for some players.

Leading Heisman Trophy candidate Darren McFadden strikes me as an artist.  His game isn't all that fancy, but he's creative enough to play multiple roles as returnman, tailback and quarterback at the D-I level.  He drives a funky, tricked-out car.  And he wears dresses on the side.  Artist.

Out west, quarterback John David Booty is an artist.  His game isn't all that fancy, but here's a guy who ditched his senior year of high school at age 17 to compete for a starting quarterback job at a major program.  That's vision at work.  As a high school passer, he was magnificent in a gimmick offense.  Somehow he was able to transform himself from a shotgun/gunslinger into a pure pocket passer.  It's one of the most remarkable transformations I've ever seen and something that stumped guys like Brock Berlin, Brent Rawls, Josh Booty and so many others.  Kid's got some imagination.

Another signal caller worth mentioning is Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen.  He's a big-time mechanic.  He's been groomed since birth to be a quarterback and by the end of high school had all but mastered college-level mechanics and understanding of defenses.  He's very polished (which also means he has a low ceiling) and a ready-made product.  Artists tend to be more freewheeling and prone to mistakes whereas Clausen's had that tunnel-vision of a grinding mechanic.

At Michigan, one player who really stood out last year was linebacker/defensive end Shawn Crable.  His versatility alone speaks to artistic tendencies.  He plays decent in space and can run with tight ends and backs.  But he can also stuff the run and has a real knack for getting to the quarterback.  His game is imaginative and freewheeling.  Need more?  He was born in Buckeye country and was one of those rare high high high profile Ohio ballers to give serious thought to programs around the country before settling on hated rival Michigan.  Independence?  Check.  Creativity?  Check.  Artist.

Who else would you like to discuss?  Leave a comment below and let's get the conversation started.  Some wild cards: Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit (broadcaster or player), Mack Brown, Colt McCoy, Arrelious Benn, Andre Woodson, Pat White, DeSean Jackson, Frank Beamer.

In the meantime, here are some possible questions for Mr. Whit Watson: You spoke last year about Urban Meyer, Bobby Bowden, Mickey Andrews, Jeff Bowden, Larry Coker, Chris Leak, George O'Leary, Jim Leavitt and Andre Hall.  With some new players and coaches emerging, how about these names: Randy Shannon, Jimbo Fisher, Rick Trickett (are there any artists among FSU's new coaches?!), Tim Tebow, Matt Grothe, Percy Harvin, Myron Rolle and Terry Bowden?

Also: How would you assess the great Tailgate Overtime show?  More artist or mechanic?  How about co-hosts Brady Ackerman and Terry Norvelle?  Or guests like Mike Bianchi or the myriad former Gators, Noles and Canes who make guest appearances?  Plus: wild cards.

My quick takes: Rolle is a tough-nosed defender, but I could see him dropping football tomorrow to follow some other pursuit.  He's a renaissance man and an artist in my book.  Shannon appears to be a big-time mechanic, same with Trickett.  Fisher strikes me as a mechanic, Grothe an artist (people keep comparing him to Joe Montana!), Harvin an artist, Tebow a great artist who is also a mechanic (keeps winning all the offseason hard-work awards).  Bowden's a bit of a renaissance man - surprisingly - went to Oxford and did law school and seemed surprised by the hours he's had to put in as a low-level assistant coach at Florida State.  Let's call him a closet artist.