Meeting someone through Zoom isn’t quite like being in the same room. But even from afar, Colombi's cool and collected demeanor projects through the screen.

“He has a calmness about himself,” Texas Tech defensive coordinator Keith Patterson said. “He has a presence about himself. He believes in himself and his ability.”

When Colombi got the call that he would start over the bye week, he didn't celebrate long. Immediately, he was ready to get back to work and prepare for the biggest game of his life. 

“[The talk] was pretty quick,” Texas Tech coach Matt Wells said. “He was excited, but pretty level headed. It was a fairly quick conversation.” 

Colombi was originally recruited by Wells and his staff from Hollywood, Fla., to Utah State and backed up Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love for two years. When he had the chance to rejoin the staff at Texas Tech, he jumped at the opportunity, even as he knew there were no guarantees of playing time behind Alan Bowman. 

However, his calm and poised personality has quickly shown itself on the football field during his short tenure in Lubbock and convincingly earned him the chance to start his first college football game on Saturday against West Virginia. Colombi’s numbers in relief have been good: 74.1 percent completion, 359 passing yards and three touchdowns in limited time. More importantly, the offense has played far more consistently with Colombi under center. 

“I felt the change to Henry gives us the best chance to play better on offense,” Wells said. “That’s how I evaluated it. It’s not Alan’s fault – it’s that when Henry’s gotten in, he’s moved us.” 

To compare, we analyzed all the drives both Bowman and Colombi have played against Power Five competition in 2020. To try and be as precise as possible, we did not include any drives that ended short at halftime and credited the drive Bowman was injured against Kansas State to both quarterbacks since they shared the drive. Still, the numbers were stark.