October 16, 2025 • 9 mins
Bill Rabinowitz's new Book "Buckeye Brotherhood" is due out Tuesday! He tells the story of how Ohio State navigated a new world to win a National Championship
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eight thirty eight over to the Legacy Retirement Group dot
com phone line.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And here's a familiar name.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Bill Rabinowitz spent what twenty five plus years with the
Columbus Dispatch, covering the buck Eyes, now covering the Buckeyes
for sub Stack, and a new book is coming out
here in a couple of days.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Bill, Good morning. How are you my friend?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm good. How are you good?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good to talk to you again. It's been a minute.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
So talk about the book. We'll talk about the book,
and we'll talk about the current buck guys. But your
book is I think in pre order phase now. It's
called The Buckeye Brotherhood.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Talk about it.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yeah, yeah, Buckeye Brotherhood is my third kind of Ohio
state season book. I did one on the twenty twelve
season Bucky Rebirth won on the fourteen National Championship season
the Chase, and I kind of thought it was dumb
with books, which was fine, and then last year happened
and I thought, well, this story needs to be told
kind of from the inside as much as I can
(00:51):
tell it, and so, you know, I kind of went
my book cave for four months and came out with it,
and you know, it's It's not the most pleasant thing
to do. It was just still a book in four months.
But I'm really proud of what this is. I think
that Olive's Day fans who really want to know how
this happened last year, why it happened last year, the
personal stories of the people involved, I think this will
(01:13):
tell them. I interviewed more than fifty people Ryan Day
for you know, numerous times, mean to day, almost every
player and coach on that team, and really eased together
how that season came about and how they overcame the
stuff that had overcome.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It was an interesting season, to be sure.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I think did they not start the season last year
rank number one and they were pretty much wired to wire?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Were they not?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
They started the last year number two? Okay, Georgia was
number one, but they were considered almost like one A.
And then they lost to Oregon and that was, you know,
that hurt, but it wasn't kind of a mortal wound
or anything. And then they lost in Michigan, which felt
like death, and they had to regroup and they had
now a famous team meeting the whole team had with
(02:01):
Ryan Day, just Ryan Day and no other coaches that
really explored the season around, and I was able to
piece it together and I kind of joke with the players,
it's a shade and none of you actually recorded this meeting.
So I had to piece it together and talked to,
you know, every player that I could about that, and
so I I have a real sense of how that
happened and things that were said in that meeting. And yeah,
(02:24):
I think that when you read that chapter in particular,
you'll get a sense of how they turn the corner.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
It's interesting because that after that devastating loss to.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
The team up north, I mean, then they just went
on this tear.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I mean, they smoked Tennessee, they went into the Rose Bowl,
they got revenge on Oregon, they beat Texas, and then
of course the National Championship game, they took care of
business over Notre Dame. And you know, a lot of people,
myself included, you know, we talked about after the Michigan
game that that was arguably one of the best things
that could have happened to them.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, and I asked that question, and and of course
it's an unanswerable question. We don't know, we don't know
the alter, alternate history of that, right, but they did
say that it really did galvanize them that they felt
like there were things, there were issues on the team
that they needed to fix. Both someone exes those point
of view and schematic thing, but also a psychological thing
(03:18):
that things that you know, they they needed something to
bring them together the way that they did, because I
remember watching the first quarter of the Tennessee game and thinking, well,
where are these guys in all year right right? And
and they carried through the order game was even more like,
oh man, these guys are are you know, immune business?
And I'm not sure that would have happened to the
(03:39):
same degree if they'd beaten Michigan and then presumably you know,
played and won the Big Ten championship. But you know,
all we know is what did happen? And what did
happen was that meeting turned things around. They went into
that meeting as one team, and they came out of
a different team.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Bill it's our guest.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
The book out here in a couple of days called
The Buckeye Brotherhood details the ups and downs of last season.
So how much do you think the new playoff format?
I mean that that's a critical part of this because
I mean, you don't go to the conference championship, you
don't play in the Big Ten championship game, you lose
just a weird game, heartbreaker to your rival, at your
(04:20):
second loss of the season. You know, in previous year's bill,
you're done, you're sunk, You're out of the top five.
But last year, the very first you know, twelve team
college football playoff, you know they were they were in fine,
they were in great shape.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, maybe knew going into the Michigan game they were
going to be in the playoffs. The question was, you know,
did that loss because a lot of those players came
back to beat Michigan. I mean, you have to win
the national championship and win the Big Ten two, but
Michigan was the first immediate goal. And when they lost that,
it was just absolutely crushing. I talked a player after
player and asked them, what did you do you know
the rest of that day, and they all gave me
(04:57):
variations of it just a just stared at this state
and didn't say a word, or it was just so
depressed I couldn't eat, you know, variations of that. And
so absolutely if they had not, if this wasn't an
expanded playoff year, they it would have been worse than
Missouri and the Cotton Bowl because none of those guys
probably would have played in that bowl game. Right, Just
(05:19):
awful And so yeah, just like in twenty fourteen, you know,
they don't get in the playoffs if it's if it's
you know, the two team BCS format. So they've been
the beneficiaries, you know, of good timing. But yeah, that
the Michigan loss on top of you know, the saving
grace for that was they knew they had the playoff.
(05:40):
That was kind of their ace in the hole. But
they also knew it was all or nothing. If they
didn't win the playoffs, they the season would have been
a failure.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Bill, Do you think the new playoff system is bad
for rivalries like the team up north? Do you think
it's bad for conference championships? Will those ultimately go away?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
I think it's probably more bad for conference championships, and
I don't think that's actually a bad thing. I think
if you're going to expand the playoffs, the last thing
these teams probably want is to have an extra game
when they know they're going to be in the playoffs anyway,
So I can see that being a casualty if they
expand the playoffs. But I don't think anything will affect
too much the Ohio State Michigan rivalry. I remember remember
(06:21):
in twenty twenty three when it was clear that the
winner was going to the playoff and the loser was
going home. I mean, at least in terms of the playoffs.
That just added so much to that game. You know,
but what Ohio stayed lost it? If you'd asked them
then you would you like them expand the playoffs? Yeah? Right,
So it kind of takes the march madness elements of
what are done out of it because in the fourteen
(06:42):
playoffs you could probably lose one game, which couldn't lose two.
Now you can lose two, which you can't lose three, right.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Right, Bill, So you've had some time to reflect on
last season.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
The book's coming out, whin.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
It's coming out next Tuesday, next Tuesday first, but you
can pre order it on Amazon or Bars and Noble
or any local bookstore.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
It's called Buckeye Brotherhood from Bill reb buck Eye Brotherhood.
Bill Rebinowitz, the author, our guest this morning. So you've
had time to reflect on last season. You wrote the
book looking forward to seeing that, and then you've been
watching obviously this season. This Buckeye team today seems it
seems like a different team. I'm trying to find an
achilles heel and I can't find one.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah, I mean I just did a little midseason report
cards kind of thing on substack and then you can
find me at Bill Rabinowitz stop substack dot com. And yeah.
The only kind of phase of the game that you
can say, well, I'm not sure they're clicking on all
cylinders is the run game. That's been up and down.
They haven't been real explosive in the run game. I
(07:44):
think Bo Jackson gives them a jolt. I think he's
a special player, so I think it'll be fine. But
in comparison to the way every other phase is playing, Yeah,
that's you know, the quote unquote leak wink.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah. And I don't know if that hasn't hurt them though.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
I mean, that's the thing, really, and it hasn't been bad,
it just hasn't been great like every other face has been.
I mean, you look at Julian saying, and I don't
think anyone could have asked him to play any better
than he's played. And the defense is then lights out.
I mean it's, you know, such an impressive defense gets
through the lost eight players, eight starters.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Do you think at some point that the running game
is going to have a breakout game. It could be
this week at Camp Randall Stadium where the Buckeyes they
just for whatever reason, everybody's healthy and they start clicking
and then they just run the ball and they now
we can put that to bed. Well, Ohio State can't
run the ball. Well, that's eventually going to get solved.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, I think it certainly can. They have the players
to do it. The offen the line is a good
offensive line. A game of Bo Jackson leading their running backs.
I mean C. J. Donaldson and James Soopers are fine,
but I think Bo Jackson's special. Yeah, I think that's
probably gonna happen. I mean they have essentially. I mean,
now the Penn State has imploded. And still that's a
dangerous team if they have talent. But but nothing like
(08:59):
the game thought it was going to be. If you
if you say that Tennis State is you know, who
knows what their attitude is going to be and they
they at all, there's no way to know. But other
than Penn State, you know, you're looking at a pretty
smooth smooth failing until you get to the Michigan game
and Misig is not looking great either. But that's always
get different. That's a whole different entity that that game.
Eight thirty eight over to the Legacy Retirement Group dot
com phone line.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And here's a familiar name.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Bill Rabinowitz spent what twenty five plus years with the
Columbus Dispatch, covering the buck Eyes, now covering the Buckeyes
for sub Stack, and a new book is coming out
here in a couple of days.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Bill, Good morning. How are you my friend?
Speaker 3 (00:18):
I'm good. How are you good?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Good to talk to you again. It's been a minute.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
So talk about the book. We'll talk about the book,
and we'll talk about the current buck guys. But your
book is I think in pre order phase now. It's
called The Buckeye Brotherhood.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Talk about it.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yeah, yeah, Buckeye Brotherhood is my third kind of Ohio
state season book. I did one on the twenty twelve
season Bucky Rebirth won on the fourteen National Championship season
the Chase, and I kind of thought it was dumb
with books, which was fine, and then last year happened
and I thought, well, this story needs to be told
kind of from the inside as much as I can
(00:51):
tell it, and so, you know, I kind of went
my book cave for four months and came out with it,
and you know, it's It's not the most pleasant thing
to do. It was just still a book in four months.
But I'm really proud of what this is. I think
that Olive's Day fans who really want to know how
this happened last year, why it happened last year, the
personal stories of the people involved, I think this will
(01:13):
tell them. I interviewed more than fifty people Ryan Day
for you know, numerous times, mean to day, almost every
player and coach on that team, and really eased together
how that season came about and how they overcame the
stuff that had overcome.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It was an interesting season, to be sure.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I think did they not start the season last year
rank number one and they were pretty much wired to wire?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Were they not?
Speaker 3 (01:38):
They started the last year number two? Okay, Georgia was
number one, but they were considered almost like one A.
And then they lost to Oregon and that was, you know,
that hurt, but it wasn't kind of a mortal wound
or anything. And then they lost in Michigan, which felt
like death, and they had to regroup and they had
now a famous team meeting the whole team had with
(02:01):
Ryan Day, just Ryan Day and no other coaches that
really explored the season around, and I was able to
piece it together and I kind of joke with the players,
it's a shade and none of you actually recorded this meeting.
So I had to piece it together and talked to,
you know, every player that I could about that, and
so I I have a real sense of how that
happened and things that were said in that meeting. And yeah,
(02:24):
I think that when you read that chapter in particular,
you'll get a sense of how they turn the corner.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
It's interesting because that after that devastating loss to.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
The team up north, I mean, then they just went
on this tear.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I mean, they smoked Tennessee, they went into the Rose Bowl,
they got revenge on Oregon, they beat Texas, and then
of course the National Championship game, they took care of
business over Notre Dame. And you know, a lot of people,
myself included, you know, we talked about after the Michigan
game that that was arguably one of the best things
that could have happened to them.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, and I asked that question, and and of course
it's an unanswerable question. We don't know, we don't know
the alter, alternate history of that, right, but they did
say that it really did galvanize them that they felt
like there were things, there were issues on the team
that they needed to fix. Both someone exes those point
of view and schematic thing, but also a psychological thing
(03:18):
that things that you know, they they needed something to
bring them together the way that they did, because I
remember watching the first quarter of the Tennessee game and thinking, well,
where are these guys in all year right right? And
and they carried through the order game was even more like,
oh man, these guys are are you know, immune business?
And I'm not sure that would have happened to the
(03:39):
same degree if they'd beaten Michigan and then presumably you know,
played and won the Big Ten championship. But you know,
all we know is what did happen? And what did
happen was that meeting turned things around. They went into
that meeting as one team, and they came out of
a different team.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Bill it's our guest.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
The book out here in a couple of days called
The Buckeye Brotherhood details the ups and downs of last season.
So how much do you think the new playoff format?
I mean that that's a critical part of this because
I mean, you don't go to the conference championship, you
don't play in the Big Ten championship game, you lose
just a weird game, heartbreaker to your rival, at your
(04:20):
second loss of the season. You know, in previous year's bill,
you're done, you're sunk, You're out of the top five.
But last year, the very first you know, twelve team
college football playoff, you know they were they were in fine,
they were in great shape.
Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, maybe knew going into the Michigan game they were
going to be in the playoffs. The question was, you know,
did that loss because a lot of those players came
back to beat Michigan. I mean, you have to win
the national championship and win the Big Ten two, but
Michigan was the first immediate goal. And when they lost that,
it was just absolutely crushing. I talked a player after
player and asked them, what did you do you know
the rest of that day, and they all gave me
(04:57):
variations of it just a just stared at this state
and didn't say a word, or it was just so
depressed I couldn't eat, you know, variations of that. And
so absolutely if they had not, if this wasn't an
expanded playoff year, they it would have been worse than
Missouri and the Cotton Bowl because none of those guys
probably would have played in that bowl game. Right, Just
(05:19):
awful And so yeah, just like in twenty fourteen, you know,
they don't get in the playoffs if it's if it's
you know, the two team BCS format. So they've been
the beneficiaries, you know, of good timing. But yeah, that
the Michigan loss on top of you know, the saving
grace for that was they knew they had the playoff.
(05:40):
That was kind of their ace in the hole. But
they also knew it was all or nothing. If they
didn't win the playoffs, they the season would have been
a failure.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Bill, Do you think the new playoff system is bad
for rivalries like the team up north? Do you think
it's bad for conference championships? Will those ultimately go away?
Speaker 3 (05:59):
I think it's probably more bad for conference championships, and
I don't think that's actually a bad thing. I think
if you're going to expand the playoffs, the last thing
these teams probably want is to have an extra game
when they know they're going to be in the playoffs anyway,
So I can see that being a casualty if they
expand the playoffs. But I don't think anything will affect
too much the Ohio State Michigan rivalry. I remember remember
(06:21):
in twenty twenty three when it was clear that the
winner was going to the playoff and the loser was
going home. I mean, at least in terms of the playoffs.
That just added so much to that game. You know,
but what Ohio stayed lost it? If you'd asked them
then you would you like them expand the playoffs? Yeah? Right,
So it kind of takes the march madness elements of
what are done out of it because in the fourteen
(06:42):
playoffs you could probably lose one game, which couldn't lose two.
Now you can lose two, which you can't lose three, right.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Right, Bill, So you've had some time to reflect on
last season.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
The book's coming out, whin.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
It's coming out next Tuesday, next Tuesday first, but you
can pre order it on Amazon or Bars and Noble
or any local bookstore.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
It's called Buckeye Brotherhood from Bill reb buck Eye Brotherhood.
Bill Rebinowitz, the author, our guest this morning. So you've
had time to reflect on last season. You wrote the
book looking forward to seeing that, and then you've been
watching obviously this season. This Buckeye team today seems it
seems like a different team. I'm trying to find an
achilles heel and I can't find one.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah, I mean I just did a little midseason report
cards kind of thing on substack and then you can
find me at Bill Rabinowitz stop substack dot com. And yeah.
The only kind of phase of the game that you
can say, well, I'm not sure they're clicking on all
cylinders is the run game. That's been up and down.
They haven't been real explosive in the run game. I
(07:44):
think Bo Jackson gives them a jolt. I think he's
a special player, so I think it'll be fine. But
in comparison to the way every other phase is playing, Yeah,
that's you know, the quote unquote leak wink.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah. And I don't know if that hasn't hurt them though.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
I mean, that's the thing, really, and it hasn't been bad,
it just hasn't been great like every other face has been.
I mean, you look at Julian saying, and I don't
think anyone could have asked him to play any better
than he's played. And the defense is then lights out.
I mean it's, you know, such an impressive defense gets
through the lost eight players, eight starters.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Do you think at some point that the running game
is going to have a breakout game. It could be
this week at Camp Randall Stadium where the Buckeyes they
just for whatever reason, everybody's healthy and they start clicking
and then they just run the ball and they now
we can put that to bed. Well, Ohio State can't
run the ball. Well, that's eventually going to get solved.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, I think it certainly can. They have the players
to do it. The offen the line is a good
offensive line. A game of Bo Jackson leading their running backs.
I mean C. J. Donaldson and James Soopers are fine,
but I think Bo Jackson's special. Yeah, I think that's
probably gonna happen. I mean they have essentially. I mean,
now the Penn State has imploded. And still that's a
dangerous team if they have talent. But but nothing like
(08:59):
the game thought it was going to be. If you
if you say that Tennis State is you know, who
knows what their attitude is going to be and they
they at all, there's no way to know. But other
than Penn State, you know, you're looking at a pretty
smooth smooth failing until you get to the Michigan game
and Misig is not looking great either. But that's always
get different. That's a whole different entity that that game.
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