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Stanford football was one of the best and most successful programs in all of college football in the early 2010s, but the Cardinal has fallen on some hard times of late. Stanford has not reached a bowl game since 2018, which is also the last time it won more than four games in a season.
In 2026, Stanford will look a lot different than it has in recent years. After two years with Troy Taylor as head coach and one season with Frank Reich in an interim role, Tavita Pritchard is in to lead the rebuild in Palo Alto this season and beyond.
Now, Prichard has decided who his starting quarterback will be when he starts his head coaching career in 2026. On Tuesday, Pritchard announced that Michigan transfer Davis Warren will start the season as QB1 for the Cardinal when it takes the field in Week 0 against Hawaii, per On3 Sports.
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Warren was unranked as a prospect coming out of high school, but he carved out a role in 2024 with the Wolverines after spending the 2022 and 2023 seasons primarily as a backup. During that 2024 season, Warren made nine appearances and completed 64.1% of his passes for 1,199 yards and seven touchdowns to nine interceptions. Michigan went through a carousel of quarterbacks during the 2024 campaign, with none of them finding consistent success on an offense that really struggled.
Warren did not play during the 2025 season as Michigan pivoted to Bryce Underwood at quarterback.
Now, the senior quarterback has a chance to rewrite his college story by leading a Stanford team with low expectations to a quality season in 2026 under Pritchard. If Warren can lead the Cardinal back to a bowl game, it could prove to be a monumental moment for a program in desperate need of a turnaround.
Stanford’s will get underway in Week 0 against Hawaii on Aug. 29, and then there will be no time for Warren and company to settle in before the big boys come to town. Preseason No. 7 and ACC title favorite Miami (FL) comes to Palo Alto in Week 1 on Friday, Sept. 4.
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