‘Hail Yes!’ reactions as Michigan football rides dominant defense past Fresno State
‘Hail Yes!’ co-hosts Tony Garcia and Rainer Sabin share their reactions as Michigan football rides dominant defense past Fresno State on Aug. 31, 2024
Let’s see, Davis Warren lost a year of high school football to the pandemic, most of another season to cancer, had so little tape he couldn’t find much in the way of offers, finally accepted a walk-on spot from Jim Harbaugh, ran the scout team, backed up the backups, backed up J.J. McCarthy, got his chance in the summer before his senior year and beat out everyone’s favorite to be the next quarterback at the University of Michigan.
Well, everyone’s favorite outside the program.
Inside it?
Sherrone Moore knew Warren had more than a chance.
“He’s fought as big an adversity as you can fight,” said U-M’s new head coach, who has his own compelling backstory. “The kid is just unbelievable off the field.”
His story on the field just started, and we will see where it goes. But you’d be hard pressed to find another story like Davis Warren’s among this particular group of Wolverines … or within any college football program at the moment.
Oh, there are other stories, sure, like Colston Loveland’s, the team’s tight end who found his way from Gooding, Idaho – population: 3,722 – to the Big House, and will eventually find himself in the NFL via the first round of the draft.
Hey, talent finds its way.
Like Jeff Goldblum once said. Or something like that. The actual quote, if you’re wondering, was “life, uh, finds a way.” The actor was talking about dinosaur breeding, and that mankind probably shouldn’t be trying to control something that evolution – or meteors, or an invisible hand in the sky – decided had already had its time.
Moral metaphysics aside, the character in “Jurassic Park” had a point: Life, indeed, finds its way, and after finding his way to the center of Michigan’s huddle on opening night last Saturday, all Warren had to do was remind himself it was just football.
Yeah, he was nervous; he may be a survivor, but he’s still human. Besides, think about the journey that he’d been on, and the grit and grind – on the field, in the hospital – he endured for the opportunity to run through the Big House tunnel and take the field as the leader of the Maize and Blue. You’d be nervous, too.
Warren, to his credit, anticipated the nerves. Envisioned them, even. Saw himself being out there, saw the crowd, saw himself leading his team. The meditation chair, as he called it, helped. So did the first play, a handoff to Donovan Edwards – he gained two yards.
And after the next play, when he found Loveland for 13 yards?
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“It was fine,” he said.
Warren led U-M to Fresno State’s 3-yard line on the drive; the Wolverines began it on FSU’s 31 after Mikey Keene threw an interception. On second-and-goal from the 3, Alex Orji came in the game, the quarterback Warren had beaten for the starting job.
Orji hit Edwards for the touchdown, which meant the first touchdown pass of the season hadn’t come from Warren’s arm. How did he react?
By sprinting down the sideline to greet Orji. Moore took notice. You can bet the team did, too.
Warren said he prides himself on being able to throw the ball at a high level, and he’ll get his chance to truly show that this Saturday when Texas rolls into Ann Arbor. And while his arm and decision making are surely parts of what helped him win the job, his arm wasn’t the difference during camp.
His mind was.
As he said Monday when he met with reporters, throwing at a high level is “maybe not the most important aspect of a quarterback. I think mental makeup is probably No. 1.”
Arm talent helps, obviously. But without everything else, a gifted arm is just a gifted arm. This isn’t to say Warren lacks arm ability. And after one game it would be foolhardy to label him a game manager. Even though he would understand the questions after his 15-for-25 debut.
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The slow start, he said, mirrored fall camp. Once he and the first-team offense got going?
“We became an explosive offense,” he said.
Full of 15-yard pass plays and touchdowns against U-M’s promising defense, and if he can do that against the guys on the other side of the locker room, he – and his head coach – believe they can do it against the guys on the other side of the field.
We will see. The competition gets a lot tougher in a hurry. He’ll have to read through his progressions more efficiently and see the open receivers. He missed a few last Saturday night.
“I’m not concerned or worried,” he said Monday. “We are going to push the ball down the field when defenses give us a chance … I know we have the playmakers to do it. Just stay ahead of the sticks.”
Why would he worry? It’s football. Not the cancer ward at a children’s hospital, where he found himself in 2019. One minute he was getting up at 6 a.m. to workout, the next he was on his back, hearing doctors tell him he had leukemia.
“The blink of an eye,” he said, “it was difficult.”
Warren was sharing the details of his life with ESPN’s “College GameDay,” which will stop in Ann Arbor Saturday for the massive showdown with Texas. The new U-M quarterback loved watching the show when he was young, and he remembers the occasional against-all-odds story of various players in the game.
The kind of story he offers now.
“You never expect that to be you,” he said.
Yet, there he was, fighting for his life, and here he is, recounting the story for the flagship program. And there he’ll be this Saturday, leading his team before GameDay and millions more.
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In his mind, he sees the run out of the tunnel, the roaring crowd, the top-five ranked Longhorns waiting on the other side of the line of scrimmage. And he sees himself, directing it all, making plays.
“I belong here,” he said Monday.
He knows he will have to keep proving it. He also knows he’s already proved plenty, and that if he makes a mistake, or throws an interception, he’s been through much worse.
“It’s hard to wake up and have a bad day at this point,” he said. “Nothing really bothers me. Within a play, a drive, a week, whatever it is, nothing can bring me down.”
Contact Shawn Windsor: [email protected]. Follow him @shawnwindsor.
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Publish date : 2024-09-03 23:08:00
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