HOUSTON (AP) -The Rice University football team was going through little more than a routine workout - some light running in the late afternoon - when Dale Lloyd suddenly collapsed on the field.

Lloyd, a freshman on his way to a redshirt season, told his trainers he didn't feel right. He was conscious for the ambulance ride to the hospital. That was about 5 p.m. Sunday.

Less than 16 hours later, he was dead.

On Monday, grief-stricken Rice players and coaches were left to deal with his death - and were still waiting for answers.

``I just can't describe the pain we're feeling right now and the shock,'' Rice athletic director Chris Del Conte said Monday. ``It will take a long time to digest. The coaches are crushed. This is a tough time for all of us.''

The 19-year-old Lloyd collapsed on a day in which the temperature in Houston had hit a high of 82. He died about 9 a.m. Monday, school officials said. An autopsy was pending.

``No one knows what happened,'' Del Conte said. ``It's a mystery.''

Although Lloyd didn't complain of anything specific, he told trainers he didn't feel right. Coaches met with the team Monday afternoon to talk about Lloyd's death.

``The Rice Owl family has suffered a devastating loss,'' Rice coach Todd Graham said in a statement. ``Dale was a tremendous person with the heart of a champion.''

Lloyd played in Rice's season opener against Houston but hadn't played in the last three games. The team planned to redshirt Lloyd, who played football and baseball at Houston's Lamar High School.

``He was a tremendous student who happened to play football,'' Del Conte said, fighting back tears. ``His smile just lit up the room.''

Rice is scheduled to travel to face Army on Saturday. Del Conte hasn't made a decision on the status of the game.

This isn't the first time Del Conte has had to help a team deal with tragedy. Before he was hired at Rice in June, he worked as an associate athletic director at the University of Arizona, where two athletes died suddenly.

Women's basketball star Shawntinice Polk collapsed and died in the McKale Center last September because of a pulmonary blood clot. In 2004, Arizona football player McCollins Umeh, a freshman, died during a voluntary summer workout due to an enlarged heart.

``It's not something that you get used to,'' Del Conte said. ``It's not something where experience helps. It's just devastation. It's one of those things where you don't know what to do.''

Last summer, Missouri football player Aaron O'Neal, a 19-year-old linebacker, died of a viral illness after collapsing during a preseason workout. A month later, San Francisco 49ers offensive lineman Thomas Herrion died after a preseason game due to heart disease.

Lloyd was selected to the Who's Who Among American High School Students and volunteered with the Mayor's Youth Council.

He is survived by his parents, Dale and Bridgette Lloyd, and two brothers.

``I think we will all feel better in this society when we have the answers,'' Del Conte said, ``and right now the hardest part is we don't have the answers.''

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