The end of the 2023 Iowa football season will mark the end to some familiar faces for Hawkeye fans in recent years – some more positive than others.

After the conclusion of Iowa’s Citrus Bowl matchup against Tennessee on New Year’s Day in Orlando, fan-favorite punter Tory Taylor and scrutinized offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz will all be gone from the program, along with a senior class of 20 players, some of whose status is yet to be determined if they will return or not.

But the season will also mark the end of wide receiver Nico Ragaini’s time in the Black and Gold, an unadvertised recruit out of high school that has come to represent the Iowa coaching staff’s ability to spot a diamond in the rough.

Since joining the program in the spring of 2018, the southern Connecticut native has more receptions than any other receiver, which ranks him seventh in career receptions at Iowa with 154.

“Since he’s been here, he’s been fantastic,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “We probably should have recruited him out of high school in retrospect, but it’s all worked out.”

Missing just two games in the past five seasons, Ragaini has been a staple for an Iowa football team that has faced controversy during his time in Iowa City, such as a racial discrimination lawsuit against the program by former players, the firing of a strength and conditioning coach due to such claims, and a high-profile investigation into players betting on games.

But despite this — and claims of an atrocious Hawkeye offense — Ragaini has chosen to remain loyal to Iowa, returning to the team in a time when former Iowa wide receivers Charlie Jones and Keegan Johnson transferred to more pass-friendly schools.

“Our goal is to win; that’s the only goal,” Ragaini said at Iowa football’s media day. “The goal can’t be how many catches or touchdowns I have. It’s what I can do to push this team forward and make us win the game.”

Early years

Ragaini hails from New Haven, Connecticut, a community with a population of nearly 30,000 people 80 miles north of New York City. The son of a first-generation American, Ragaini comes from a big and passionate Italian-American family, with nearly 30 family members all residing in East Haven.

Every home game weekend his parents, Gianni and Josanna, make the trip to Iowa City with a big entourage of friends and family to watch Ragaini play. The couple brought nearly 100 people when Iowa traveled to the east coast to face Rutgers in 2022.

“My family is super close-knit,” Ragaini said last season ahead of the Rutgers game. “There will be family from both my mom and my dad’s side, and you can’t tell who is on whose side.”

Growing up, Ragaini excelled in sports, becoming a standout multisport athlete. He won the New Haven Male Athlete of the Year Award twice as he set the state record for career receptions with 222 and helped his high school team win 26 games in the final three seasons.

But early on, Ragaini was more known for his prowess with a lacrosse stick in his hands rather than a football, as he also holds records for most points and assists — 180 and 109, respectively — at Notre Dame High School.

“Lacrosse and football are both really physical sports,” Ragaini said in 2019. “In lacrosse I was a midfielder, so I played defense and offense and sprinted up the field. So, it kept me in shape over the summer all the time.”

Ragaini’s success on the lacrosse field led him to be highly sought after by powerhouse schools such as Loyola University-Maryland, Albany, and Cornell, the latter of which he would commit to following his sophomore year of high school.

Ultimately, football was Ragaini’s true passion, and he knew he wanted a chance to play it at the next level.

“I really love lacrosse, and it’s awful to say, but it was pretty much my backup plan,” Ragaini said in 2019.

Despite all his success, when Ragaini graduated high school in 2017, his only significant offers to play football came from Boston College and Yale.

Coming from a prep school, Ragaini said most of his classmates would study at Ivy League universities after high school. However, he said he didn’t enjoy the atmosphere of gameday at Yale while visiting during his senior year.

“I went to a football game, and there were like 2,000 people there, and that’s when I knew that wasn’t for me,” Ragaini said at a Nov. 21 media availability.

Ragaini had no offers from major Division I FBS schools, including UConn in his home state. Instead of settling for the offers he had, Ragaini decided to take a semester at Avon Old Farms, a prep school in Avon, Connecticut, which allowed him to continue attending college camps while not using any college eligibility.

During this challenging time, he said he would often seek advice from his dad, who played Division I baseball at UConn.

“He always told me he wasn’t the most talented, but he worked the hardest, and that definitely instilled something in me,” he said.

Eventually, Ragaini’s tape reached the desk of former Iowa assistant coach Ken O’Keefe and the athlete signed with Iowa in January 2018.

In hindsight, Ragaini said he’s glad he didn’t receive any scholarships from local schools like UConn.

‘If they had [offered me], I probably would not have done my fifth year at prep school and probably would not have had [the Iowa] offer,” Ragaini said in August. “The people of Iowa love Iowa football, which is the best thing ever, especially since I feel like nobody gives a crap about UConn football.”

After redshirting in 2018, Ragaini led a 10-3 Iowa team in receptions with 46 and was ranked third in receiving yards at 439, all career highs for the redshirt first-year.

Two seasons later, Ragaini cemented himself in Iowa football history forever when No. 3 Iowa took down No. 4 Penn State on his game-winning 44-yard touchdown reception.

However, like most players Kirk Ferentz recruits, Ragaini has always been concerned about winning, and he’s witnessed his fair share of it, as Iowa is 53-21 since he joined the program.

“The main goal is continuing to win. Even if it’s catching one ball a game for the rest of the year, I’ll do it,” Ragaini said following Iowa’s 31-0 loss to Penn State earlier this season.

Despite potentially not living up to the expectations of some Hawkeye fans after his breakout 2019 season, Ragaini is a testament to believing in oneself to overcome the odds.

“I’m really thankful for my time at Iowa,” Ragaini said. “I love everything about being here.”