Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Voice winner Jake Hoot with coach Kelly Clarkson. (NBC Photo)

Standing 6-foot-6, he headed to Tennessee Tech University to play football.

And it’s only in college that he started playing regular gigs at local restaurants and college bars.

Now he’s the Season 17 winner of The Voice.

Jake Hoot, 31, of Cookeville, Tenn., was named the fan favorite at the end of The Voice’s Season 17 finale Tuesday night.

Following him in the voting: Ricky Duran of Team Blake in second place, Katie Kadan of Team Legend in third place, Rose Short of Team Gwen in fourth place.

In victory, Jake becomes and sixth country artist to win the show. He becomes the third Team Kelly artist to win in the past four years.

And he becomes the first true one-chair turn to win the show.

Oh, sure, Chris Blue won the show (supposedly) as a one-chair turn in Season 12. But he was the last artist selected for the show. Only one chair could turn.

When Jake auditioned with “When It Rains It Pours” by Luke Combs, all four coaches had spots on their teams. And only Kelly turned.

A couple months later, he was regularly cracking the Top 10 on the iTunes singles chart, including hitting number one with his cover of “Desperado” and hitting the Top 10 with the debut single (“Better Off Without Her”) that he released earlier this year.

Tweeted Jake after Monday’s performance finale: “What a ride. Thank you to @kellyclarkson for believing in me, to my family for putting up with me, and to all the #hooters out there who made this possible!”

The only drawback to Tuesday’s outcome, Jake was planning to release a debut album — bolstered by a successful Kickstarter campaign — early in 2020.

That’s likely to be delayed with a potential record deal entering the picture.

I somehow doubt Jake’s fans will complain.