OS and Restoring From Clone?

Hi-
Forgive me if this is a stupid question. I can't find anything about this on the forum which gives me the feeling that it should be self-explanatory, but I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed...
Let's say I wanted to downgrade back to Leopard from Snow Leopard. (Whether that's a good idea or not is beside the point.) So I use Superduper to save a clone of my hd to an external drive. Then I wipe the machine, and reinstall Leopard using the original install cd.
Now, when I hook up my external drive to reinstall my old stuff, will it also reinstall Snow Leopard (the old OS)? Is the OS itself saved to a clone and reinstalled when restoring cloned data and programs?
Thanks so much!

Yes, it would re-install Snow Leopard. I have never attempted this, but my suggestion would be to use time machine to back up the drive, then wipe it and install Leopard. Then, instead of using time machine to restore the back up, use migration assistant to import your data and programs from the time machine back up.

Like I said...haven't tried it, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work.

Thanks so much, brairden. Since it would re-install the OS, your suggestion makes perfect sense. When I have a few hours I'll try it, and if anything of note happens I'll post.

Thanks again!