Follow college football long enough and you realize certain schools have established themselves as producers of singular talents at particular positions. Case in point: starting in the 1960s, Heisman Trophy winners Mike Garrett, the late O.J. Simpson, Charles White, Marcus Allen and Reggie Bush helped establish Southern Cal as “Tailback U.” – perhaps the most obvious example, but hardly the only one.
Still, with the possible exception of the Trojans, no college has been so closely identified with one position as Stanford with quarterbacks. Most know well John Elway, two-time Super Bowl winner, and the Cardinal’s current general manager Andrew Luck, late of the Indianapolis Colts and one of four Heisman finalists from 2009-2017 who threw passes for Stanford.
And that’s just the recent ones.
“Don’t forget Jim Plunkett,” said first-year Stanford coach Tavita Pritchard, also a former Cardinal quarterback, referencing the 1970 Heisman winner and two-time Super Bowl champion, during the preseason ACC Kickoff in Charlotte. You can go even further back to John Brodie, longtime San Francisco 49ers signal-caller, who at Stanford led the nation in passing yards, touchdowns and completion percentage … in 1956.
Davis Warren laughs and admits “I’m not old enough to remember (Elway)” – let alone Brodie – though Warren says he did view an Elway documentary on Netflix recently. “But I grew up in Southern California watching PAC-12 football on Saturdays,” he said.
Warren, slated to start for Stanford this fall after transferring in 2025 from Michigan, can reel off other past Cardinal QBs Kevin Hogan, who won 23 games and back-to-back Rose Bowls in 2013-14; Tanner McKee, who in 2021 led an upset of then-No. 3 Oregon; and Davis Mills, owner of the school’s single-game passing yardage record (504 vs. Washington State).
Warren confesses he also doesn’t recall his head coach’s playing days. He might want to read up on Pritchard, who in his first start in 2007 – subbing for starter T.C. Ostrander, who’d suffered a seizure a week earlier – led Stanford, a 41-point underdog, to a 24-23 upset of No. 1 Southern Cal, a result Wikipedia calls “among the greatest upsets in college football history.”
Ah, history. Stanford claimed national championships in 1926 and 1940 and had winning records against all but one member of the former PAC-12, but its recent performance is dismal.
The Cardinal’s last winning season was in 2018 (9-4 under longtime coach David Shaw), and last season’s 4-8 mark–an improvement over four straight 3-9 records–resulted in the departure of one-and-done coach Frank Reich.
That opened the door for Pritchard, who spent 2010-22 as a Shaw assistant before three seasons as an assistant with the Washington Commanders, where he helped develop Jayden Daniels, an NFL Rookie of the Year. Talk about the circle of life: back in 2009, he was replaced as Stanford’s starter by a redshirt freshman: Andrew Luck. Now he and Luck have a relationship that Pritchard calls Stanford’s “two-headed monster.”
“We’ve built that over the years,” he said. “We’ve got a trust and genuine love for each other; we’re able to get to decisions quickly, and we know how the other operates. He trusts me to handle my side of the house, and vice versa.
“Andrew and I are part of the mission to preserve and continue the legacy that is Stanford football. And (Warren) is here to uphold that legacy as well. One of the reasons Stanford appealed to him … when you look at the history of Stanford football, it’s riddled with really amazing quarterbacks, both in college and the pros.”
Warren confirms that “the tradition speaks for itself. It takes a unique person to be the quarterback at Stanford; you’ve got to be able to connect with guys who have interests outside football. You can be sitting next to a guy in the dining hall, and he’s talking about his homework in civil engineering.” Academics are never far from mind.
When Warren first met with Luck about transferring – this following a bowl-game injury at Michigan that forced him to sit out last season – the dual challenge of academics and football wasn’t sugar-coated. “(Luck) told me, coming to Stanford, you’re choosing hard, choosing to be more difficult than the average place,” he said. Especially as a quarterback: “The expectations … it’s a privilege to play that position here.”
Pritchard and Luck believed Warren was up to that challenge for several reasons, not least his time at Michigan. Originally a walk-on, he rode the bench for three years, getting a national championship ring in 2023 but little playing time. In 2024, he started the Wolverines’ first three games but was benched after a three-interception game, not returning to the starting lineup until Week Nine, a 24-17 win over Michigan State.
Warren finished with a 6-3 record, highlighted by Michigan’s 13-10 upset of Ohio State in which he threw two interceptions, and a ReliaQuest Bowl win over No. 11 Alabama, where he suffered his torn ACL in the third quarter. In January, he announced his move to Stanford – about a year before Michigan coach Sherrone Moore was fired for an “inappropriate relationship” with a school staffer.
Yes, Warren has been through a lot. “He’s an old soul,” Pritchard said of his quarterback, who arrived in Palo Alto with a so-so resume from 2024 (134-of-209 passing with seven touchdowns and nine interceptions). “What he’s experienced in his lifetime, with things he’s gone through: his health, his football as a walk-on. The breadth of his experience is invaluable. Seeing him in the locker room, that’s how I know he’s capable” of leading the Cardinal.
“Football is about your ability to respond. Yes, it’s about physical talent, but way more, it’s how do I re-engage and persist, how do I move on to the next play with extreme focus and intensity.”
The Stanford brain trust also values Warren’s relationship with former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh, a former Stanford coach (2007-10) who saw enough in the walk-on to eventually entrust the Wolverines’ offense to Warren. “He took a chance on me, and I’ll always be grateful for that,” Warren said. “That was the best experience of my life: winning the national title, beating Ohio State four times.
“From the jump, (Harbaugh) empowered me to be the best quarterback I could be. My second practice at Michigan, I threw a pass for a first down – no clue what I was doing, but I did it, and he wouldn’t stop talking about it, how it was a great throw. He made me feel I could make it at Michigan as a walk-on. Even when he leaves after the national title (for the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers), he was telling me I can be the starter.
“When I tore my ACL, he called asking, ‘You got a surgeon?’ And obviously, me coming to Stanford, he was a huge fan of that. He’s been there for me every step of the way.”
Soon, Luck and Pritchard will see if Harbaugh’s instincts and their own about Warren will pay off. The opposite was true, too: “Hearing from him about how great they are, ‘two of the finest men I’ve ever been around,’” Warren recalled being told about his new coach and general manager.
Having Luck, the former NFL quarterback, and Pritchard with his own quarterback history, as resources this season can only be inspiring, Warren said. “To see from (Luck’s) perspective, how he saw the game, how he explored the nuances of the quarterback position, is really cool. He checks in with me each week, makes sure I’m doing well.”
Pritchard is the other half of the equation: “He wants us to be successful, and he trusts (players) inherently, which is empowering and uplifting,” Warren said. “He’s dead-set on Stanford being the best team it can be, and so am I.”
Warren smiled. “I knew I was in good hands here,” he said. “I’ve been re-introduced to playing quarterback in a fully different way. I understand when the chips are down they’ll be looking to me. And I’m excited about that.”
Past and future products of Quarterback U. would concur.