Crimson and cream confetti falls from the sky.

The clock hits zero. 

Indiana is college football’s national champion. 

For sophomore kicker and Coppell High School 2023 alumnus Nico Radicic, it was surreal. And strangely quiet.   

“It was unreal,” Radicic said. “But it was also the weird feeling of what’s next. This long season of us working hard was just done.”

The celebration was loud. The moment was historic. Indiana, long considered a basketball school and rarely mentioned in serious football conversations, had just finished the job. On Jan. 19, in front of a national audience, the Hoosiers completed a season few expected and defeated Miami 27–21. Blue Gatorade flew. Confetti blanketed the field. Cameras found helmets and faces and tears.

And somewhere in the middle of it stood a Coppell kicker who once trained in 6 a.m. Texas heat.

Radicic’s journey didn’t begin with confetti. It started with something much simpler. A ball and a family willing to take a leap. 

In 2016, the Radicic family moved from Croatia to Coppell. It was a decision rooted in opportunity, in starting over, in believing something bigger was possible.

“They made that move to give my sister and me a better life,” Radicic said.

His father, Tom Radicic, understands sacrifice not as a headline but as a routine.

“There were no weekends,” Mr. Radicic said. “No time off. It was classrooms every day, practice, and even Sundays you need to wake up and be with your trainers.”

That rhythm of discipline became normal, expected. It is long August mornings when the turf radiates heat in the sun. It is the empty bleachers during the offseason workouts. It is repetition without applause.  

“A lot of people don’t understand the sacrifice,” Radicic said. “I don’t think I’ve been to a party all year, but it’s paid off in the long run.”

The sacrifice wasn’t only his. It was a family that crossed an ocean. It was parents who were athletes as well. It was a soccer player who found a football and discovered something that was entirely his.

His sister, 2020 CHS graduate AnaMarija Radicic, doesn’t remember rankings or awards first.

She remembers a kid who refused to put the ball down.

It didn’t matter what kind. A soccer ball in the backyard, a football on the driveway, anything that bounced or spun. There were games in the living room, kicks down the hallway.

“He was super competitive ever since he was very little,” AnaMarija Radicic said. “He was always very attached to any sort of ball. It was the only toy that he cared about.”

Back then, there were no recruiters. No scholarship offers. No Big Ten stadiums. Just a kid who didn’t like to lose and a family learning football together as they went.

When the move from Croatia to Coppell happened, the game changed literally. Soccer slowly gave way to football. Friday nights replaced weekend matches. Instead of European pitches, there were Texas lights and marching bands.

Football didn’t just become his sport. It became the family’s rhythm.

“It brought us more together,” AnaMarija Radicic said. “We had something to all share together and celebrate.”

Now she watches him on television with his helmet on and stadiums full with thousands of fans, and it still feels surreal from the kid in the driveway.

“Every single time I go to his game or just see him on TV,” AnaMarija Radicic said, “I’m like, what the heck is going on?”

At Coppell, head coach Antonio Wiley noticed what separated Radicic early.

“It’s confidence,” Wiley said. “Those guys are a lot like golfers in the way they step up to big situations and their ability to be precise.”

Because for kickers, perfection isn’t a goal. It’s the expectation. It’s a yes or no, and one miss can turn a game around. Radicic feels that pressure at every kick and recognizes that surviving it is more than self-belief.

“It’s important who you surround yourself with,” Radicic said. “Not just a bunch of yes men. It’s important to have people around you point out the mistakes and tell you you need to fix this.”

And then comes the harder part: accepting that even with all that preparation, it still might not go perfectly.

When Radicic committed to Indiana, it wasn’t a glamorous choice. The program was coming off a 4-8 season. It wasn’t the destination most high-profile recruits circled first. Indiana wasn’t known for football dominance. People didn’t choose Indiana football.

But the coaches told him something that stuck.

“They told me my class is going to be the one to change the narrative of what’s going on here,” Radicic said.

He believed them.

He committed. And he stayed.

In a landscape where transfers are common and front-runner decisions are often rewarded, Radicic chose patience and consistency. He chose to grow with a program that he knew would grow with him. 

“Even though I only had him one year, he’s still one of us,” Wiley said. “He’s a Coppell Cowboy. Once a Cowboy, always a Cowboy.”

Wiley remembers the effort he put in with his teammates, being on the field every morning to practice. He describes Radcic’s journey as proof of a simple lesson he preaches often. 

“It shows he’s doing everything he can to constantly improve his craft,” Wiley said. “Become a master of his domain.”

Radicic says it more plainly. The difference between those who want and those who do.

“Stay consistent,” he said. “A lot of people wake up Monday and want it, and then Tuesday they lay in bed and say ‘I’ll do it tomorrow.’”

But he didn’t.

After the championship, even after being named Big Ten Kicker of the Year, Radicic hasn’t turned into someone else.

He still calls home once a week during the season and keeps his circle small. He treats the work like the point.

“I try to just stay focused on football,” Radicic said.

That focus began long before Indiana ever believed in itself.

It began in Coppell.

In early morning workouts from fall to winter when the weather either burned or froze the players before most of the city woke. In senior year practices where a kicker stands alone at the end of the field, repeating the same motion until it feels automatic. In the quiet moments after a miss when no one is clapping and no one is posting, and the only choice is whether to try again.

The confetti fell in Miami. The ring will live in Indiana history.

But Coppell will always be part of that story. Before there was a national audience, there were Friday nights under local lights. Before there was a trophy, there was consistency.

Radicic answers the question most athletes tend to dodge.

Was it worth it?

“100%,” Radicic said.

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