Football players coming back from broken bones and torn ligaments is always impressive. But cancer is not something many of these young men have had to consider when putting on pads.

Since Bryce Underwood’s QB1 spot at Michigan was secured even before his freshman year began, other quarterbacks on the roster in need of more game time have had to go searching elsewhere.

Stanford Cardinals head coach Tavita Pritchard recently announced former Wolverine Davis Warren as the team’s starting quarterback for the 2026 season. The decision was announced on August 18 after an offseason competition, as Warren readies himself to be the team’s signal caller in their season opener against Hawaii on August 29.

Warren is entering his sixth year in college football after spending the previous five in Michigan. But for this former walk-on, the journey to the gridiron was longer and more perilous than it was for others.

The First Battle

Back in March of 2019, Warren was a junior athlete attending Loyola High School in Los Angeles. He felt an unusual weakness during a morning workout which led him to seek help. After running some tests he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

This is is a fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow which can be fatal for anyone who does not seek urgent intervention.

Aged 19 at the time, Warren stopped football and began treatment immediately, going through four rounds of inpatient chemotherapy over five months and losing around 30 pounds in the process.

Not to be deterred, he set a goal within the hospital premises and found a small garden to throw footballs with his father in between treatments.

“I held that mindset throughout the whole time. I set that date, October 3, we were playing against the Hill School. I told my coach, I told my parents, ‘I’m gonna go play in that damn football game,'” Warren told 247Sports’ Michigan Insider back in 2022.

He was eventually declared cancer-free in August of the same year without requiring a bone marrow transplant. Most kids would choose this as a moment to take some rest. But Warren returned to high school football just two months later. He kept his promise and did play two possession in that game in October, although he was still too weak to make any significant impact.

Finding His Way Back To The Gridiron

His cancer diagnosis forced him to miss virtually his entire junior year. In a terrible stroke of bad luck, the 2020 pandemic wiped out his entire senior year as no high school football was played that season.

Because he had zero varsity game film from his critical upperclassman years, recruiting sites like 247Sports left him completely unranked with zero stars.

Despite the lack of film, Warren was a brilliant student. His high school coach, Chris Malleo, explicitly told him he had the talent of a major conference quarterback and urged him not to settle, advising him to simply “get his foot in the door” at a major program.

Warren’s family utilized relationships with trainers at 3DQB, a prestigious quarterback training facility in Southern California. The trainers vouched for his mechanical talent to college coaches.

This word-of-mouth promotion reached Steve Casula, an offensive analyst for the Michigan Wolverines. Throughout the pandemic lockdown, Warren and Casula met regularly over Zoom to break down film and talk strategy.

Impressed by his potential and work ethic, Jim Harbaugh offered Warren a preferred walk-on spot at Michigan. Even Duke University extended a similar walk-on offer. Warren chose to go with Michigan, enrolling in the summer of 2021 where he eventually earned a full athletic scholarship.

The Fight To Be A Starter

Despite being an unranked walk-on with no film to rely on, Warren proved himself in training camp. He was Michigan’s offensive scout team player of the year in 2021.

He spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons playing sparingly in garbage time while quietly absorbing the playbook behind future first-round NFL draft pick J.J. McCarthy.

The 2024 season was his big break where he was the underdog in a QB competition against the likes of dynamic dual-threat quarterback Alex Orji. But Warren was accurate with the ball.

“I don’t think he’s so far off from (former quarterback JJ McCarthy),” Michigan receiver Kendrick Bell said after their spring game. “I feel like he’s the best thrower in the room. There’s 100% where he can grow more, he’s getting there, but I feel like he throws the ball tremendously.”

Right before the season opener against Fresno State, Moore officially named Warren as the starter. During that year, he played in a total of 9 games (all as the starting quarterback), leading the team to a 6-3 record in those starts. This involved the upset win against Ohio State. He recorded 1,199 passing yards, seven touchdown passes, and nine interceptions.

Before he could be given another chance in the following season, he suffered a torn ACL in his right knee during the ReliaQuest Bowl against Alabama. The injury limited him in the 2025 season until he left the program via the transfer portal.

Waiting for him on the other end of the portal were the Cardinals, who needed his experience from the Wolverines and his leadership as a six-year veteran.

“Yeah, I think going into the portal, you never really know what to expect. But I think it’s been everything I could ask for and then some,” Warren said, per Ben Parker of Cardinal Sports Report.

“I think the first conversation we had, me and Coach Pritchard and Coach Luck, I could just — I could see myself in this situation, being a part of a group that loves football, that wants to push me to be good at football, push the guys to be the best team that we can be, then just develop me as a quarterback.”

The former Michigan QB now has a golden opportunity to turn things around for himself and the Cardinals.

Despite his limited game time in Ann Arbor, he was hardworking, diligent, and inspirational. A frequent visitor at Mott Children’s Hospital, Warren used his cancer battle as a story to inspire kids who are battling the same disease.