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Butler out of ICU; Cougars battle in scrimmage

Sophomore offensive lineman Jerrod Butler is out of the intensive care and in stable condition at Methodist Hospital after collapsing while working out in the Elmer Redd Strength ‘ Conditioning Center on Aug. 13.

Doctors have told the Houston Chronicle that Butler, 20, suffered a cardiac arrest and that they are still running tests.

"We still have to complete a full workup before we determine what caused this case of sudden cardiac arrest," team physician Dr. James Muntz told the Chronicle. "The most common cause for sudden cardiac arrest in a young athlete is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (a genetic heart muscle disease), but the echocardiogram didn’t show any signs of that."

Butler was moved from intensive care on Thursday and remains in the hospital.

"(Butler’s) doing fine," Head Athletics Trainer Michael O’Shea said. "He’s up and they are still running tests on him. He’s still at the hospital until they finish his tests."

Butler suddenly collapsed and stopped breathing last Monday. The Houston athletic training staff immediately rushed to tend to Butler. After the training staff performed CPR and used an external defibrillator to get Butler’s heart beating, he was rushed to Methodist Hospital.

"Absolutely, those guys saved his life by doing all that," Muntz told the Chronicle. "It’s unbelievably important to have a plan like that and to rehearse it. You couldn’t put enough emphasis on it.

"The University of Houston had an emergency action plan, and they put it in effect. That’s the biggest reason this gentleman has done so well. In a situation like this, seconds are important. When you have no pulse and no cardiac activity, you’re not getting blood flow to the brain, so seconds matter."

Practice Report

The Cougars concluded their second and final intra-squad scrimmage on Friday before the start of the fall semester.

In the scrimmage, the defense came up on top, putting up 12 sacks. Junior defensive tackle Ell Ash, sophomore inside linebacker Britton Maxwell and sophomore offensive linebacker Broderic Bean led the team with two sacks apiece.

The defense forced one turnover when redshirt freshman cornerback Jamal Robinson intercepted senior quarterback Al PeÒa early on.

On the offensive side of the ball, redshirt freshman quarterback Case Keenum finished with 112 yards on 11-of-13 passing with two touchdowns. Keenum included a 27-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Jeron Harvey.

Redshirt freshman wide receiver Teric Williams led the receiving corps with four receptions for 96 yards. Harvey finished with four catches for 45 yards.

Senior running back Anthony Alridge carried the ball for 11 times and finished the day with 67 yards on the ground.

The day may have started off slow for head coach Art Briles, but he said the practice ended well.

"I thought we ended up pretty good," Briles said in a press release, "but I didn’t think we started fast. There is not a reason not to (start fast). We have to do a better job as coaches to get the guys coming out of the gate playing fast and hard with a lot of emotion. We didn’t bring much emotion to scrimmage early, but it got better as it went on.

"That is something we’re going to work on in the next few weeks (and that) is coming out of the gates and playing fast early."

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