Michigan QB Davis Warren’s unbelievable journey from leukemia diagnosis to college football

Michigan quarterback Davis Warren has a legitimate chance to start games for the Wolverines this fall. To some, he’s just another quarterback competing for the starting job, but his teammates and coaches know the unconventional path that he had to take to get to this point in the first place.

Warren had to overcome a ton of adversity in high school to even get to Michigan. He was diagnosed with leukemia in March 2019, but Warren didn’t want a cancer diagnosis to keep him from playing in the upcoming season. Although Warren lost 35 pounds after his diagnosis, he had a date on the calendar he pledged to return to his team.

“The first week I was diagnosed, I circled a game on October 4th which was when I wanted to get back to playing,” Warren said in January. “Looking back, it was naive of me to think that, because knowing what I know now about childhood cancer, I was very lucky to be able to make it out and still be able to pursue my dreams.”

After Warren’s first round of chemo, he went to the local field with his dad to throw a football around just to feel a sense of normalcy during an unusual time in his life.

“The doctors were like, ‘Why would you do that? You shouldn’t do that. That’s not smart.’ But I just needed to feel the ball come off my hand, all that stuff. That kept me going,” Warren said.

Warren overcame his adversity and went on to play in four games his junior year of high school. His resiliency and relentless dedication to football while undergoing chemotherapy kept his dreams alive.

After battling back from cancer, another wrench was thrown his way. The COVID-19 pandemic canceled his entire senior season. He didn’t have many highlight reels to send to colleges in hopes of landing a scholarship, which prevented him from rising up the recruiting boards or even being ranked at all. However, he did earn the opportunity to play at Michigan as a preferred walk-on, and decided to take that route due to the combination of Big Ten football, head coach Jim Harbaugh, and great academics.

While Warren didn’t receive game action as a true freshman, he made a name for himself behind the scenes by being named the 2021 Offensive Scout Team Player of the Year. By 2022, he was catching the attention of Michigan fans in the spring game, as he impressed by passing for 175 yards. He would ascend further in the fall of 2022, becoming the backup quarterback in September when J.J. McCarthy’s backup, Cade McNamara, went down with a season-ending knee injury. Warren threw for 89 yards that season as the backup.

Warren took a slight step back last season, not completing a pass on five attempts while being one of the backups to McCarthy. However, McCarthy is now in the NFL and Warren is competing with Alex Orji to be Michigan’s starting quarterback.

“Davis Warren, man, he’s so good,” Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore told WXYZ’s Brad Galli on Monday. “He’s always been able to throw the ball, but it’s been about taking care of the football in the right way and he’s done that throughout camp.”

Moore also compared Warren to McCarthy in one very important way.

“Every practice he makes a play — kind of a ‘wow’ play, some of the plays that J.J. would make,” Moore said. “You’re just like, ‘Man, that’s another good play.”

Warren believes he’s shown his teammates and coaches that he has the intangibles to be Michigan’s QB1.

“I think I’ve proven to myself — and these guys — that I’m capable of being the starting quarterback here,” Warren said in April.

While Warren doesn’t have the speed Orji does, he’s considered to thrive reading coverages and is careful with the football, traits that Michigan wants in a starting quarterback. In his own words, Warren is “able to process information super quickly.”

“Nothing rattles him,” Michigan offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell said this offseason. “He’s been through a lot in his life and his career, and that’s how he plays.”

Warren’s the type of person who doesn’t care about the odds, his belief in himself outweighs mathematical doubt, and he has overcome those odds every step of the way. He’s the kind of story college football fans root for across the nation.

“I’m excited for the opportunity, to show I can do this and I can do this at a high level consistency over and over and over again,” Warren told Big Ten analyst Jake Butt. Make the right read, make the right decision, keep the offense moving forward.”

Moving forward is the only direction for a player like Warren. Surviving cancer has shifted his perspective on a day-to-day basis; he says he never wakes up and has a bad day. Warren knows how finite life is, and his perspective makes him feel exponentially stronger, a message he tries to convey to children battling cancer.

“I feel like it’s an X factor for me, I tell kids that all the time that are going through it,” Warren said. “These kids that are missing school or are behind in their lives or in their development because they’re going through treatment. This is gonna make you 10 times stronger, 10 times tougher, 10 times more resilient, 10 times happier than anyone else. I don’t feel like I wake up and have a bad day. I’m super blessed and now to be able to be in the position to be the starting quarterback of Michigan. It’s a very special thing.”