Davis Warren’s road to becoming Michigan’s starting quarterback

Davis Warren never thought it’d be him.

A big football fan growing up, the now-senior quarterback would wake up early on Saturdays to watch College GameDay. He’d see stories about players and coaches overcoming significant life challenges, like losing a loved one or fighting through cancer. But he never thought he’d live it.

“You never think that you could really be the kid that’s in those shoes and having to deal with something like that,” Warren said Monday. “And then in a blink of an eye, you’re going from a 6 a.m. workout where you can’t even lift the warm up weight, and then before you know it, you’re in the children’s hospital and someone tells you you got cancer.”

In August 2024, Warren was named the starting quarterback of the No. 9 Michigan football team. But just five years ago, in March 2019, his world was turned upside down with a leukemia diagnosis.

For the following few months, Warren spent almost all of his time in the hospital. He lost nearly 40 pounds while undergoing chemotherapy, before he returned to play in four high school games during the 2019 season. 

The following year, Warren’s senior season was canceled by COVID-19. But he stuck with football, reclassifying to start his college career in 2021. It paid off quickly as he earned a preferred walk-on spot with the Wolverines.

“I just got really lucky,” Warren said. “The fact that I can come out here and play the game that I love, pursue my dreams at the highest level after an experience like that, not every kid gets the opportunity to do that. So I just count myself super lucky and blessed, and I’d say it just redefined a ton of things for me. It’s hard to wake up and have a bad day at this point.”

After three years as a backup at Michigan, Warren has defeated the odds, climbing his way up the depth chart to earn the starting role. Before Saturday’s win over Fresno State, he hadn’t started a football game at any level since that fateful 2019 season.

Warren spent his freshman year with the Wolverines as a scout team member — a standout one at that, who earned Offensive Scout Team Player of the Week “like every week,” according to senior tight end/fullback Max Bredeson. Warren ended up being named Offensive Scout Team Player of the Year.

During his sophomore year in 2022, he played in five games under center and completed five passes for 89 yards. Last season, Warren appeared in three games at quarterback, attempting five passes and rushing twice. 

Despite coming into this spring with minimal game experience, he made a statement with the best performance of any quarterback during Michigan’s Spring Game this past April. Warren completed 6-of-9 pass attempts for 136 yards and two touchdowns. He still wasn’t expected to start, though, in a position battle that took months to decide.

Michigan coach Sherrone Moore and others within the program maintain that the quarterback race between Warren and junior Alex Orji was neck-and-neck through fall camp, but Warren pulled ahead in the past few weeks of practice — thanks to his strength, accuracy and other key qualities. His off-the-field attributes are just an added bonus.

“He’s the first guy to come in the building say, ‘Hey, Coach, there’s a kid at Mott Children’s Hospital that wants to come to practice. Can he come?’ ” Moore said. “I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, don’t ever ask me that again. Just bring him.’ ”

With the Wolverines’ top-10 showdown against No. 4 Texas fast approaching, Warren is preparing to line up against some of the biggest names in college football. As a former walk-on and career backup, some might say he’s in over his head.

Warren disagrees.

“I know I’m capable of playing at this level, 100%, and capable of doing whatever it takes to get a win,” Warren said. “… Maybe a chip on my shoulder a little bit, you could say, but I don’t really look at it like that. I know I belong here, I know I deserve to have this opportunity to go and play in a really special game.”

Because although Warren never thought he’d be the kid fighting through cancer, he never once doubted that he earned the opportunity to compete — and now, start — at Michigan.

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