FORT WORTH, Texas — For the second time in as many years, TCU’s football season is trending sideways, and the man who physically looks like he could fill the unique role that saved the team last year sounds like he knows he’s not built for that job.

Senior wide receiver Eric McAlister is listed at 6-foot-3, 205 pounds. His teammate from last year who is in his rookie season with the Green Bay Packers, Savion Williams, is 6-4, 222.

Before the start of the 2025 season, McAlister made it clear about any thoughts of him trying to replace Williams as a part-time running back.

“Noooo,” he said, “because Savion is basically a horse. I am not a horse.”

TCU desperately needs that horse right about now, while the Packers patiently wait, and hope, their rookie produces the way he did in his senior year.

Keeping with the horse theme, Williams is the rarest of breeds. Took him five years to harness his considerable talents, and a case of “let’s see if this works” from his coaching staff, but his development, and now his subsequent absence, has affected a college football team the way few receivers ever do.

Williams' development in Green Bay

The 87th overall pick in the 2025 draft, Williams’ progress with the Packers has been slow. Not bad; this feels more like a long game.

“I don’t know what my role is. I really don’t,” Williams said in an interview after the Packers tied the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in Week 4. “I’m going with the flow. I’m happy. I’m in the NFL.”

The same thing happened when he arrived at TCU as a freshman in 2020 out of Marshall High School. He needed years of development before he hit.

This season in Green Bay he has 10 receptions for 78 yards with a touchdown. He’s run into the same problem a lot of rookie wide receivers do on good offenses — there isn’t a lot of opportunity.

The one element that made him different from nearly every other receiver in the draft, the Packers have used sparingly. After TCU tried him as a running back in limited situations, both his draft stock, and the team, took off last year.

This season, he has run the ball eight times for 28 yards.

“On my visit here, I told them I would do whatever they wanted me to do for the team. They saw what I did in college, and liked it, so they started using it,” he said. “The biggest difference here isn’t the size, it’s that everybody is fast.”

He said he still follows TCU, but what he won’t say is how badly he is missed.

Williams' college team has not found his replacement

After a 30-19 home loss to a bad Houston team in 2024, TCU was 3-3 and the people were not happy with the head coach. Or the offensive coordinator.

The next week, offensive coordinator Kendal Briles tried Williams early as a running back at Utah. The dividends were immediate, and the team won six of its final seven games. It was not all because of Williams, but his ability as a running back to create positive yards nearly by himself created a matchup problem that opposing defenses could not stop. He ran for 310 yards and six touchdowns in that closing stretch.

As TCU prepares to play at No. 25 Houston on Saturday, it is still looking for the same type of “problem” that Williams was when he lined up as a running back.

“It’s more to it than [not having Williams],” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said Tuesday. “Not having [starting running back] Kevorian Barnes has hurt us. We’ve gotta figure it out.

“We’ve struggled to run the ball, and that’s been an issue for too long. It doesn’t matter if our starting running back is hurt. It doesn’t matter if our first seven running backs are hurt. That’s college football, and that’s the way it is.”

TCU ranks last in the Big 12 in rushing yards, and rushing yards per game. Nationally, TCU’s rush offense ranks 108th in FBS.

Dykes and his staff knew they were losing a lot when Williams went to the NFL, and they haven’t found a horse to replace that rare breed.

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