As a proud owner of a @Bill Z Bubba-approved Savage/SR brute, I can say it was 100% inspired by the big man himself. While we will forever debate the essence of what is the BEST CLAWS, I can't say his evangelism has been entirely for naught.
I would have to agree with both the Mailman and Werner, though; the general conception, I feel, for SR on a tank just seems...weird; I don't think the general playerbase has really embraced the Gospel of Multilayered Damage Mitigation. To them, tanks are supposed to get hit, over and over, and be fine. SR doesn't work that way. Widows, too, are viewed the same, and I build mine to basically be a team-focused SR scrapper.