Large Group Coming to Watch Nico Ragaini

Rutgers Game Close to Home for Iowa Receiver

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Nico Ragaini had a lot of extra ticket requests for Iowa’s game at Rutgers on Saturday night.

“Right now, I have a confirmed 79 people coming,” Ragaini said on Tuesday.

That number astonished quarterback Spencer Petras, who has done some scrambling of his own to get extra tickets for his family and friends.

“Seventy-nine?” Petras said. “I think I’ve got 14. So, not quite 79.”

Ragaini is from East Haven, Connecticut, which is about a 2 ½-hour drive from Rutgers. So, there’s a big Ragaini support group coming.

“It’s, like, the closest game I’ll ever play to my hometown, so I should have a pretty good following coming there to watch me play,” Ragaini said. “That’s pretty cool. I’m pretty blessed to have such good friends coming up to support me.”

Since so many of Iowa’s players are from the Midwest, they’ll have a lot of their ticket allotment available for the game. So Ragaini is hitting up anybody and everybody for help.

“I feel like I’m a pain in the ass a little bit coming up and asking for tickets,” he said.

There isn’t a lot of bartering that has gone on, Ragaini said.

“Most of the guys on the team aren’t from the East coast, so most of the guys are giving them to me for nothing, which is pretty nice of them,” he said. “I always have a pretty good following for each game. The Italians travel well.”

Ragaini is just glad to be playing for friends and family. He played his first game of the season in last Saturday’s 27-0 win over Nevada after recovering from a foot injury that cost him the first two games of the season.

“It’s been a challenge coming back, trying to focus on taking it day by day,” he said. “I could have been lazy in the rehab room, but I set a goal to myself that I would come back fresh and ready to go. And hopefully I can stay like that.

“On Saturdays, it was tough watching everyone else play. Being on the sideline and watching everyone else practice really sucks. It made me grateful for the opportunity for the rest of the season, which is good. It’s making me more hungry.”

Ragaini had two catches for 56 yards, 46 coming on a second-half reception as the Hawkeyes held on to their lead through three lightning delays.

Ragaini said his recovery after the game was what he expected.

“It’s what I expected,” Ragaini said. “I didn’t expect to come out of the game feeling like I was completely fresh. After surgery and all that, you’re going to be sore. I understand that.”

Ragaini said he thought he could have returned for the September 10 game against Iowa State, but waiting one more week helped.

“It was just smart to,” he said. “You can’t break your foot again once you get the screw in it, but you can be sore for the rest of the year. So the trainers and the doctors thought it would be smart for me not to go, just wait until the next game.”

Getting him back was important for Iowa’s offense, coach Kirk Ferentz said.

“He has a veteran presence in a very young room,” Ferentz said. “He's a good player, he's nifty and he knows how to play, he really does.”

The return so close to his home is something important for Ragaini, who wasn’t highly recruited before coming to Iowa.

“One thing I feel like I have a positive characteristic about is just having a chip on my shoulder, remembering the feeling I had when I was in high school and prep school, seeing all of these other guys with offers and thinking I was just as good as them,” he said. “I try to keep that chip on my shoulder every day.”