Losing football games consistently weighs on a person, it happened with Drake Nugent during his time at Stanford and made football a little less fun for him. After last season, Nugent decided he needed a change of scenery and a fresh start in hopes of happier days playing football again.

While he didn't necessarily fall out of love with the game of football, coming to Michigan made him rediscover his love for the game of football.

"Honestly it's kind of refreshing," Nugent told reporters on Tuesday. "At Stanford, we didn't really win many games there. I love those guys there, I was captain there last year and it was great. I just feel like, personally, I needed a change and just needed almost like a spark with football again. Not to say I didn't love it last year, just to give me that excuse. I'm coming into a competition and stuff, I gotta be on my stuff every day.

"Where at Stanford, you could give yourself that excuse. I would like to say that I didn't but it didn't stick."

When did that 'spark' reignite?

While close to fizzling out, arriving in Ann Arbor gave enough oxygen to his fuse to light it back up as he readjusted to his new home.

"Probably when I started fall camp," Nugent said. "Obviously, I came in here in January and started working my butt off and tried to earn everyone's respect as fast as I could. I never really lost that spark but I think definitely being on the field again was like, wow, this is awesome. I was able to truly love it again where I'm at."

Now, with mere days to go until the season, he is entering a season where his team is expected to win a lot of games compared to the opposite of what he went through last season with the Cardinal.

Pressure is not anything new to Nugent, nor is expectation.

In fact, he accepts all the pressure in the world.

"Of course it brings pressure," Nugent said. "It's not just Harbaugh, it's the whole community, the fanbase, everyone expects to win games. That's also a good thing,. I've always said, pressure is a privilege. When people are expecting of you, it's a good thing that they're expecting good things of you. Who wants to expect bad things from you, right? You don't want that. It's a privilege to be able to come to a place that's already expecting to win a lot of games and I can see myself adding to that."

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