Davis Warren’s path has taken another sharp turn, and this one gives him a fresh chance to reset. The former Michigan quarterback has been named Stanford’s starter for the Week 0 matchup with Hawaii, according to On3’s Pete Nakos, putting him back in the spotlight after a lost 2025 season and a rough run in Ann Arbor.
Warren’s Michigan stint came with plenty of pressure from the jump. He was tasked with following a national championship season, stepping in after J.J.
McCarthy went in the first round of the NFL Draft to the Vikings. And he did it in a new era, with Jim Harbaugh already gone before spring ball began to take the L.A.
Chargers job. That meant a new head coach, a new cast around him, and the weight of carrying forward a program that had just reached the top.
The results never really settled in. Warren opened 2024 as Michigan’s starter, got benched, then regained the job midway through the year. His season was then cut down by an ACL tear suffered in the 2024 ReliaQuest Bowl, and he missed the entire 2025 campaign before entering the transfer portal and landing at Stanford.
The move to Stanford also made sense when you look at what Michigan had lined up. Even if Warren had stayed healthy, his route to the field would have been crowded. Bryce Underwood arrived as the five-star No. 1 overall prospect in the Class of 2025, while Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene brought experience into the quarterback room.
Keene was even being considered for the starting job over Underwood, with the freshman expected to learn from the sideline and in garbage-time snaps. But Keene then suffered an upper-body injury before spring practices, missed that stretch, and was limited in fall camp. He ultimately redshirted last season before entering the transfer portal again.
That sequence left Underwood as Michigan’s starter, and while it didn’t go swimmingly, it did give him valuable reps as he heads into 2026 as the guy. With two quarterbacks already ahead of him, Warren likely would have had a hard time seeing the field at all, which helped push him toward the portal after last season.
At Stanford, though, he’s back in line to start. It’s a new opportunity for Warren to try to rebuild momentum after the injury and the uneven 2024 season, and he’ll get the first shot right away against Hawaii. Stanford’s outlook this year isn’t exactly glowing, but Warren now has a chance to help lift the offense.
In Other News...
Michigan Just Changed The Big House Experience For A New Era
Michigan Stadium is about to look a little different on game day. Michigan Athletics has launched the Leaders and Best Champion Partners Program, opening the door to official corporate advertising inside the Big House for the first time, with Coca-Cola, Meijer and Google Gemini among the inaugural partners. The university says the branding will be designed to fit the familiar maize-and-blue look that has long defined the place, a sign of how even college footballs most traditional settings are adapting to a new era.
For Michigan, the move is about more than adding logos to one of the sports most recognizable venues. The program is intended to bring in revenue that can help support student-athletes as the college sports landscape keeps changing, and it puts the Wolverines among the programs finding new ways to fund the future without losing sight of the past. The Big House has always been a symbol of scale and tradition, but now it is also becoming part of the broader business conversation shaping the sport. [Read more 🡒]
Former Michigan QBs Are Sending A Message About The Position Room
Since J.J. McCarthy moved on, Michigan has been trying to steady the most important spot on the field, and the churn has been impossible to miss. Sherrone Moore has seen the quarterback room change shape repeatedly, with Davis Warren, Jake Garcia, Jadyn Davis, Alex Orji, Mikey Keene and Jayden Denegal all leaving for new programs and landing in very different situations as they try to carve out their next roles.
What makes the exodus notable is how broad it has been: some of those former Wolverines are already starters elsewhere, while others are still fighting for jobs heading into the 2026 season. For Michigan, it is another reminder that the post-McCarthy transition has been about more than finding one new quarterback - it has been about rebuilding confidence and continuity in a room that still feels very much in motion. [Read more 🡒]
Michigan May Have Found A Receiver Changing The Camp Pecking Order
Sophomore wide receiver JJ Buchanan is making a noticeable push in Michigans fall camp, and it is not hard to see why the staff likes what it has found. After a solid first season at Utah, where he caught 26 passes for 427 yards and five touchdowns, Buchanan has drawn praise from position coach Micah Simon for his leadership, work ethic and knack for competing on contested throws. His background as a basketball player has also been mentioned as a plus, which fits the kind of physical, above-the-rim traits that can stand out when camp turns into a daily competition.
For Michigan, the encouraging part is not just that Buchanan is flashing, but that he seems to be climbing toward a role the offense can count on. He is viewed as a strong candidate to help on the 50-50 balls that often decide tight games, and the buzz around him suggests he could become one of the more important targets in the lineup before long. The bigger question now is how far that momentum carries once the Wolverines start sorting out the full pecking order at receiver. [Read more 🡒]