Denver Warren’s Veteran Leadership Is Critical To UAB’s Success In 2025
By Steve Irvine
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 14, 2025
To say that UAB head coach Trent Dilfer had recruiting doubts after first looking at Denver Warren’s path through college football is not fully accurate.
Sure there are raised eyebrows when you see that Warren was searching for his fifth destination in a five-year trip through college football. That’s a lot of change, even in today’s transfer portal world of college athletics. Now, with that said, Warren is hardly a unicorn in college football. It’s not hard to find well-traveled players. And Dilfer said it’s never the right move when building a roster to treat each prospect the same.
“I think each case is unique,” Dilfer said. “We have our philosophies and I think you have to be highly skeptical when you see multiple moves. And it changes the vetting process a little bit. But you know again, you don't want to just have always and never. I think always and never get you in a lot of trouble. If you say ‘Hey, we're never gonna look at a guy that's been to multiple schools.’ Well, maybe 1 out of 10 is the right guy for you and he's learned a lot of good lessons. You got to try to find that one.”
Warren is that one. The 6-foot-2, 300-pound defensive tackle was already established as team leader by the time spring practice concluded. Warren was the defensive representative when Dilfer chose two players to represent the program at the American Conference Media Day. And, he’s continued to show during fall camp that he is an important part of the defensive foundation.
“As we went down the vetting process deeper and deeper, and this was a long one now, this was a long road of his recruiting, the reasons (for is moves) made sense,” Dilfer said. “Through his actions, he's been nothing but ready for us so far - on and off the field - and the vetting process has turned out to be the right one.”
Warren, who is from Chicago, began his college path at Bowling Green as a redshirt and he spent his second season at Independence Community College in Kansas. The Last Chance U circus was long gone by the time Warren played for Independence. His reason to enroll at that level was to work on his grades.
“That taught me a lot,” Warren said. “I can't even really put it into words. It taught me how to be a man. It taught me how to appreciate the things that I got. It was great. It was down and dirty. It was in the trenches. It was JUCO, so there was nothing nice about it. Definitely humbled me down even more than I already am. It just definitely was a learning story.”
His next stop was at New Mexico State where a Diego Pavia-led team played in the C-USA Championship game and finished 10-5. Warren played in six games that season and was credited with four tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack. Last season at Sam Houston State, Warren had his best individual season with 25 tackles, three tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, four pass breakups and a quarterback hurry while playing all 13 games for a team that finished 10-3 after beating Georgia Southern in the New Orleans Bowl.
The one thing each stop had in common was his approach.
“Just come in, adapt to the team rules, the team expectations and just roll with the guys, build relationships,” Warren said. “The relationships are very important. I want the guys to know that they can trust me. Just build those connections and make sure the guys know that they got a ball player that they can depend on. I believe I'm where my feet are at and I play ball. I play ball. I mean, I'm going to have that feeling of kind of show them that I know what I'm doing.”
UAB defensive Sam Mills III learned quickly he could count on Warren with words and by example.
“He's an athletic, energetic guy who has a blend of quickness and power,” Mills said. “He's a guy who's played a lot of ball, you know, a lot of college ball. So he's got kind of a knack for the game of what's going on or what's going to happen coming up. He’s a three-technique that can play one-technique also. He can play on the edge if need be. He's just real versatile with this game.”
Mills added that the variety of college coaches Warren has played for can be an advantage.
“He has probably done every technique I'm teaching him,” Mills said. “He's done it somewhere, so now he just has to match the names up. He's got a lot of the techniques in him already. He's just got to match the names up and get used to our language. He’s done a really good job with that, extra study and extra walkthroughs, just kind of getting it the Blazer way. With Denver, I’m not really concerned with it because he takes good coaching. He’s always kind of open ears, whether I’m coaching him or someone else, trying to get the coaching point. He’s transitioned nicely to our scheme and our words.”
Pretty soon it will be time to take the lessons to the field for his final college football season.
“It feels great,” Warren said. “I feel like I'm in the perfect spot, the place I'm supposed to be at. I feel like God makes no mistakes. And I feel like I take every day as a blessing and a learning tool and just continue to grow every day. I'm very much looking forward to this season and what it has to bring. I want to show the Blazer fans that we got a unit. It's gonna be a different year for the Blazer fans.”