‘Old man’ Nico Ragaini provides the only real experience at wide receiver for Iowa Hawkeyes

Editor’s note: Last in a nine-part series looking at each Iowa football position ahead of the 2022 season.

IOWA CITY — Don’t use that three-lettered ‘O’ word. It has negative connotations sometimes.

Let’s be nice to Nico Ragaini, just say he’s ... seasoned. Yeah, that’s it.

He’s young in most respects, but not when it comes to college football.

“I do feel like an old man, actually,” Iowa’s senior wide receiver said, indeed dropping that three-lettered ‘O’ word. “It’s cool, though. I’m 23 1/2, will turn 24 in January. There’s some 18-year-olds in the (receivers) room. So I’m, like, five years older than some of these guys. It’s pretty funny.”

The next-youngest receiver on the Hawkeyes roster is 21. There are four of those guys.

How can all these youngsters possibly coexist with an old guy? Oops, there’s that word again.

“I’m up for the challenge, and I’m excited about it,” Ragaini said. “I love being around these guys, I love Iowa football, everything about it. I love Coach Cope (receivers coach Kelton Copeland), I love our receivers here. It’s fun to be around them every single day.

“It’s not like I’m going in there and crying and wishing there were other older guys. I’m going in and taking the challenge of being the older guy and sharing my knowledge the best I possibly can.”

Ragaini became the de facto experienced guy in the receiver group when Tyrone Tracy Jr. and Charlie Jones decided in the offseason to transfer to Purdue. Walk-on Jackson Ritter is the only other player in the junior-senior classes, and he’s out for the season with an injury.

Everywhere else you look, it’s sophomores (most notably Arland Bruce and Keagan Johnson), redshirt freshmen and true freshmen. And Iowa’s passing game last season, with Tracy and Jones, was pedestrian at best, with tight end Sam LaPorta leading the team in receptions.

Though he’s mostly worked in the slot in his career, Ragaini certainly will be leaned on for receiver production.

“Just trying to take advantage of every opportunity I get,” the Connective native said. “The room, some people have left, but we can’t sit and cry about it and force anybody that doesn’t want to be here to be here. I wish them both the best of luck. 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. Busting their ass off out here every single day. So I’m pretty optimistic about our receiver group.”

Ragaini’s seminal moment with Iowa was that 44-yard touchdown catch that allowed the Hawkeyes to beat Penn State last season, 23-20. It’s a moment he has played over and over and over and over again in his mind.

“Something I’ll always remember and cherish,” he said. “I was kind of blacked out in that moment, don’t even quite remember everything. But I’ve seen the video a million times, and every time I see it on Twitter or something, I feel like I have to watch it. It’s such a cool moment. My younger cousins can repeat the words Gus Johnson said on TV.”

Perhaps this season there will be another of those moments, another Ragaini Replay moment, if you will.

“All he can do is be himself,” said Copeland. “Nico has done a tremendous job up to this point of being himself. He’s not a rah-rah guy, and I appreciate that about him. He’s kind of a hard-hat, bring-his-lunch-pail-to-work-every-day kind of guy. That’s the kind of young man he is, and I appreciate that about him.

“We’re kind of built the same way. I’m not a rah-rah guy myself, I go about my business in a quiet manner. If you look over time, I would hope you’d see some production, and that’s what it’s all about. It’s not about what we say we’re going to do, or opinions. It’s more about production. And if you look at Nico’s body of work, it’s all been about production, for the most part.”

Ragaini has 91 career receptions in 38 games with Iowa, including 10 starts. That’s not bad for a kid who has never been the biggest, never been the fastest, never been the quickest.

Someone who had to go to a prep school after high school to get his first and only FBS offer.

“I feel like I was the last receiver on the Iowa board,” Ragaini said. “They were, like, offering everybody else, I saw on Twitter. Then I finally got the call, committed on the spot and came out here three days later.

“So I always try to keep that chip on my shoulder, you know? Because I feel like that’s one of my best attributes. I’m always out here to prove something.”

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com