Nico Ragaini Ready for Final Ride at Iowa

Veteran Receiver Leader in Inexperienced Room

Iowa's Nico Ragaini (left) walks out of the tunnel behind teammate Terry Roberts before Kids Day practice on Aug. 13, 2022 at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Forest Evashevski left a message for his Iowa football team before their epic duel with visiting Ohio State in 1956.

Posted on the Iowa locker room wall were these words: “You have 60 minutes to play the game Saturday - and a lifetime to remember it.”

No. 7 Iowa snapped No. 6 Ohio State’s 17-game Big Ten winning streak that day, 6-0. It remains one of the greatest victories in program history.

It didn’t take Nico Ragaini 60 minutes to play his way into Iowa football lore. It took just one well-executed play, called at the perfect time.

Ragaini ran right, cut sharply left and caught a perfectly-placed pass by Spencer Petras. The 44-yard touchdown, with 6:26 remaining in the game, completed No. 3 Iowa’s 23-20 comeback victory over No. 4 Penn State on Oct. 9, 2021.

“I have exit meetings with my players at the end of the season,” wide receivers coach Kelton Copeland said. “And I told Nico, “No matter what happens going forward you will always be ingrained in the history of Kinnick football.’ One of the greatest plays made there. And he looked at me and said, “That’s pretty cool.’ And I agree. Pretty cool.”

As the 6-foot, 196-pound Ragaini prepares for his final season at Iowa, he’s No. 1 on the depth chart and the most experienced wide receiver in the program. He plays with a free spirit and a chip on his shoulder.

“I’ve found that I’m the best possible football player I can be when I’m free-spirited, loose and, like my mom likes to say, I have this little swagger about myself,” Ragaini said.

He brought that chip on his shoulder with him from Connecticut. Nico had no Division I offers as a senior at Notre Dame High School in East Haven, Conn., despite 3,345 career receiving yards. So he attended Avon Old Farms Prep for a season, hoping to get discovered.

“I feel like I was the last receiver on Iowa’s board,” Ragaini said. “They had been offering everyone else, I would see on Twitter, except me. And then I finally got the call. I committed on the spot, and flew out here three days later. So I always try to keep that chip on my shoulder, because I feel like it’s one of my best attributes. I’m always out there to prove something.”

Ragaini enters this season with 90 career catches for 966 yards and four touchdowns. That includes the touchdown he’ll always be remembered for.

“My younger cousins and my little sister can repeat the words (announcer) Gus Johnson said on TV,” Ragaini said.

With the transfer of wide receivers Charlie Jones and Tyrone Tracy, Jr., Ragaini will be looked to for even more production than he’s had in the past.

“I’m just trying to take advantage of every opportunity I get,” Ragaini said. “Some people have left, but we can’t sit and cry about it, and force somebody to be here when they don’t want to be. I wish them both luck because they’re both great guys and great teammates. But we’ve got a bunch of young guys who are putting in the work every single day.”

Ragaini always sits next to sophomore Arland Bruce IV in the film room, offering advice. That's the kind of leadership Copeland appreciates. Now in his sixth season as Iowa’s wide receivers coach, he had been at Iowa a year when Ragaini enrolled for the 2018 spring semester and took part in spring practice.

“Nico and I have developed a pretty close coach-player relationship,” Copeland said. “We’ve talked constantly about ways he can become a better leader, and ways I can be a better coach for him and the rest of the group. I’ve had zero issues with Nico’s progress, his production, his steady mindset and how he shows up to work every day. He’s the guy I’ve had the younger guys look up to.”

Ragaini had a career-best seven catches against Penn State in 2019. He had a career-best 73 receiving yards against the Nittany Lions last season. Forty-four of them were career defining.

Ragaini said he’s seen video of his touchdown catch “a million times. Every time I see it on Twitter I feel like I have to watch it because it’s such a cool moment. That was obviously the coolest play of my entire life.”

Iowa had practiced the play all week, and Ragaini was waiting for offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz to call it all game.

“There was a TV timeout, and he said we were going to run the play in a little huddle on the sideline,” Ragaini said. “We were just hoping they’d be in the correct defense. Thankfully, they ran the defense we wanted. I caught the ball, I ran it in the end zone, the crowd erupted. It was a surreal moment, something I’ll always remember and cherish.”

Ragaini had some 40 family members and hometown friends in town for the game. That evening, he and his buddies headed downtown.

“We had to go out and celebrate a little bit,” he said. “We did have a good time. A lot of people were coming up and congratulating me, which was pretty cool.”

Ragaini likes to talk about his shining moment against Penn State, but he’s determined to be known for more than one catch. He wants to leave Iowa on a high note.

“The work started after the bowl game, through winter strength and conditioning, just giving your all,” Ragaini said. “You’ve got to figure out what your priorities are. We always talk in team meetings, “How bad do you really want to be a college football player?’ It’s not for everybody. Some people want to be Joe College. But if you want to be a football player, especially at the University of Iowa, you’ve got to be locked in. And I feel like our offense is pretty locked in.”