It's not like Michigan football quarterback Davis Warren was confused about why he lost his job.

The senior won the starting quarterback competition for the season-opener vs. Fresno State after a lengthy battle that bloomed in spring, heated up in summer and didn't fall into place until the first week of the regular season.

There was just one problem. Once he got inside the white lines at the Big House, he didn't do the No. 1 thing he'd done throughout the prior six months to earn the trust of both coaches and teammates: take care of the ball.

“From those first two games, I feel like 90% of what I did was good,” Warren told media on Monday. “But playing quarterback is 100% of the plays, so you gotta be on it 100% of the time, which I took to heart. It was something that I had to work on, and I think that was something that I did a good job in camp of and got away from a little bit.

“That was really the message, just protect the football. The ball is the program, and that’s pillar No. 1 of our offense, and something that we didn’t do, and that’s the number one goal of the quarterback."

Warren threw six interceptions in just 11 quarters of play, and by the time he threw his third interception against lowly Arkansas State, which came on the heels of a 31-12 beatdown against Texas, head coach Sherrone Moore felt he had no choice but to go to Orji.

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“You’ve got to protect the football. When you don’t do that, it’s a sure-fire way to not have your spot," Warren said of what coaches told said. "I knew that. I didn’t need anyone to tell me that. I didn’t need anyone to sugarcoat it for me either. I’m a big boy. I can handle the truth. I think the truth serum got poured out.”

Warren had completed 48 of 72 passes for 443 yards (66.7%) and two touchdowns, but the bad constantly overweighed the good. Still, there was good in there. Like vs. the Red Wolves when he had three turnovers; he completed the 11 other pass attempts on the day.

There's no taking away those three interceptions, but the coaches figured out there was a recipe to slowly coach them out of the senior. Moore felt Warren pressed the first time he won the job, so he and the offensive staff took it upon themselves to remind him while the quarterbacks are leaders, he still only needs to do his 1/11th.

No more, no less.

"The adversity that he’s been through in his life and what he’s done, I think he always wants to prove people wrong," Moore said. "For him it’s just, ‘Dude, just be you. That’s all you need to do. You don’t need to do anything extra.’ He’s got a chip on his shoulder for his life and what he’s been through.”

Warren took it upon himself to not just look at his own game, but some of the best at the next level. He looked at times Tom Brady would be willing to not "rip" a ball in a tight window, but rather take a check down and live to fight another day. Same with Jared Goff − he watched every single throw he made to a running back in 2023.

Goff and Warren go back to their days in Los Angeles. Warren met him when he was going through Leukemia treatment when Goff still quarterbacked the Rams and now they go to the same quarterbacks coach.

In fact, Goff was one of the messages in Warren's phone, reminding him to keep his head up at the time of the benching.

The message of playing free and protecting the ball, at least against rival Michigan State, got through as Warren completed 13 of 19 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown pass to star tight end Colston Loveland.

Moore said upon reviewing film, not a single throw of Warren's was put anywhere near harms way and only on one scramble did he not perfectly have the ball high and tight, but even that never wobbled.

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As a result, U-M's offense was able to find a rhythm and offensive coordinator Kirk Campbell was able to work in the packages with Orji at just the right times. Orji ran six times for a career-high 64 yards and a touchdown as four of his touches either moved the sticks or ended in points.

“It was awesome, it was what you hoped it would be," Moore said. "You wish it had started a little faster. They work well in tandem together and you see that in practice. You see that when you see them just walk around the building. That’s how they are and they really feed off each other.

"It was cool to watch that come to fruition and not just see it in practice, but see it in the game.”

As such, that will be the plan moving forward, starting this week against No. 1 Oregon (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten). U-M now seeks its first victory over the top-ranked team since Sept. 8, 1984 when it opened the season with a win over defending national champion Miami, 22-14.

All-time, Michigan is just 3-16-1 across 20 games against the country's best and the odds-makers don't give them much of a chance this time. The Wolverines are currently 14½ point underdogs at home, marking the first time Las Vegas thinks the Wolverines will lose a game by more than 10 points since 2017.

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For now, the focus is on the quarterbacks and protecting the ball. Michigan did not have a single game where it had zero turnovers, zero penalties or allowed zero sacks on the season, yet it simultaneously did all three vs. the Spartans.

Moore and company say they're confident it's replicable. As Warren knows, that starts with him.

“We took a lot of momentum from it," Waren said. "This is why you play football. This is why you come to Michigan …big games. It’s just a great opportunity for us to keep building on last week, I'm looking forward to it.”

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football QB Davis Warren proves 2nd time is the charm