Good morning, football fans. It's Manti Te'o day here at the combine, but before the craziness, let's pass along some links from today's Herald.
My main story is on West Virginia slot receiver Tavon Austin, who has studied Wes Welker for years and might be his suitable replacement.
Karen Guregian writes the Patriots can't afford to drop another draft card if they target a wide receiver.
My notebook leads with a look at the high draft value of injured South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore, a star who has met with the Patriots. There are also items on former Patriot Brent Williams' son, Ja'Rick Rogers' penance and Rob Gronkowski's spiked performance.
11:20 a.m.:?Geno Smith just did himself a favor. He ran a 4.56 40-yard dash, which is the best of the quarterbacks so far. E.J. Manuel is second at 4.62.
Smith shows underrated mobility in the pocket, but he hasn?t flashed great skills at putting the ball away and scrambling. His mobility should be viewed more like that of Blaine Gabbert than Jake Locker.
11:13 a.m.:?Marquise Goodwin was timed in the 4.1?s by some scouts at the combine. Gil Brandt of NFL.com timed him at 4.17 and 4.19. It will be very interesting to see where his ?official? time stands. He clocked an unofficial time of 4.25.
Chris Johnson has the official combine record of 4.24. Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson were both reportedly timed in the 4.1?s back in the 1980s.
10:56 a.m.:?Tavon Austin and DeAndre Hopkins are shining in wide receiver drills. That should come as no surprise, both should be first-round picks. Hopkins probably has the best hands in this entire class.
The second group of quarterbacks and wide receivers starts up at 11 a.m. Geno Smith, Cordarrelle Patterson, Denard Robinson and Da?Rick Rogers are players to watch.
10:32 a.m.:?There?s some debate out there over how much the combine actually means. For me, it?s a nice update on where these players are two months after the season ended. Players have been training at facilities since the end of December and they?ve been improving their speed, technique, strength, etc.
That?s why it?s slightly annoying to see a player like Justin Hunter say he lost 15 pounds to run a faster 40-yard dash. That?s not an accurate representation of what he?ll be in the NFL. Some players gain weight for the combine, but that?s usually because they?ll have to do the same to play in the league. Hunter ran a 4.41, but what would he have run at this actual playing weight?
10:15 a.m.:?DeAndre Hopkins would be a perfect fit for the Patriots in Round 1, but they don?t have a history of drafting wide receivers who run 4.5 or slower. He has some of the best hands in this draft and just showed it in the gauntlet drill.
10:12 a.m.:?Tavon Austin is tearing the combine apart. He ran a 4.31 in his second 40 attempt and now he just performed perfectly in the wide receiver gauntlet drill.
Austin has proven himself to be one of the best players in this entire class already today. Someone described him as a combination of Percy Harvin and Wes Welker. That may be accurate.
9:37 a.m.:?Stedman Bailey helped himself out with his second 40-yard dash. He ran a 4.50 in his second attempt. That was after running 4.57 in the first try.
Bailey was called the best route runner in college football by his high school and college teammate Geno Smith. Bailey has a bit of Wes Welker to his game.
9:29 a.m.:?DeAndre Hopkins is another player that should be on Patriots fans? radar. Hopkins ran a 4.50, which is about what was expected out of him.
Justin Hunter, who NFL Network said lost weight to run the 40, ran a 4.44.
9:22 a.m.:?Now that I?ve had time to actually wrap my head around Tavon Austin running a 4.25 unofficial 40, there?s no way he makes it to No. 29 in the draft to New England. Despite weighing just 174 pounds and standing 5-foot-8, he?ll be a top 15 pick. Austin is a special player.
Josh Boyce helped himself out with a 4.40. Corey Fuller ran a 4.38 and Marcus Davis ran 4.40 at 233 pounds.
Marquise Goodwin just matched Tavon Austin with a 4.25. Wow.
9:15 a.m.:?Tavon Austin, who should be a Patriots target, just absolutely killed it with a 4.25 40. He wasn?t kidding when he said he was recently timed at 4.29.
9:11 a.m.:?The first group of quarterbacks are done. Now it?s time for the first group of wideouts, which features Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey and some more intriguing burners.
For the QBs, Colby Cameron came out on top with a 4.66 40. Cameron is a Louisiana Tech product.
Collin Klein ran a 4.78 40 on his second attempt.
9:03 a.m.:?The day was kicked off with Tyler Bray running ?a 5.00 unofficial 40-yard dash. Mike Glennon, one of the top quarterbacks in this class, matched Glennon with a 5-flat 40.
MarQueis Gray helped himself out at possibly making an NFL roster as a tight end by running a 4.69.
Collin Klein, who was a front runner for the Heisman at one point, churned out a 4.81. That?s a bit disappointing.
8 a.m. ET:?By the end of the day, NFL draft pundits will be wearing old gold and blue because West Virginia prospects will be taking center stage at Day 4 of the combine.
Quarterbacks, wide receivers and running backs will be running through the NFL scouting combine gauntlet (or inferno) today, and three of the most hyped prospects in that group are Mountaineers quarterback Geno Smith and wide receivers Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey. All three players should test well and shine in positional drills.
Because California wide receiver Keenan Allen is sitting out, Austin will be the first player to run the 40-yard dash at 9 a.m. The small, shifty wide receiver says he recently ran a 4.29 40-yard dash, but players have a tendency of slowing down considerably once they hit Indianapolis.
Bailey may not be quite as fast or agile as Austin, but he?s a bigger player who will shine in positional drills, especially when he?s displaying his route-running skills. Bailey will likely want to take passes from Smith in those drills ? the two have been teammates since high school.
Without a top-tier running quarterback, it might be important for Smith to time well in the 40 to set himself apart from the Ryan Nassibs, Tyler Wilsons and Mike Glennons of the draft.
Among other players to watch on Day 4 of the combine are Oklahoma State running back Joseph Randle, Oregon running back Kenjon Barner and UNC running back Giovani Bernard. All could time very well in the 40 and 3-cone agility drill.
Tennessee wide receivers Cordarrelle Patterson and Justin Hunter are among the most athletic in this class, but Texas wide receiver Marquise Goodwin has the best shot to break Chris Johnson?s combine record 4.24 second 40. Michigan ?wide receiver? Denard Robinson might be the player I?ll be watching most closely. He?ll have to display some top-notch speed and agility to be considered more than just a project with so many great wideouts in this draft.
So tune in here all day for all the latest times, news and analysis. If yesterday was any indication, we could see some record breaking times turned in by the skill position players.
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Reply # 748268 posted on 21-Jan-2013 15:52
On Telstra cable at home and I find I need to specifically connect to the https site else it will fail half the time. So long as I choose https it works fine though, slightly annoying seeing as I would like it to always load the https site without me having to specify but I suspect that is more my needing to tidy up an old bookmark or something.
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Reply # 748269 posted on 21-Jan-2013 15:54
That seems to help, thanks Poll :)
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Reply # 748271 posted on 21-Jan-2013 15:55
Yeah, have been slow as on Wgtn cable for a while now.
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Reply # 748274 posted on 21-Jan-2013 15:58
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Christchurch Cable, and finding simalar issues here. Hope that helps
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Reply # 748279 posted on 21-Jan-2013 16:11
related to http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=44&topicid=113582 "TCL Blacklisted by Microsoft Domains"?
Need help implementing Microsoft CRM? Give OA Systems a shout.? Winners of CRM Solution of the Year at the 2010 Microsoft NZ Partner Awards
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Reply # 748281 posted on 21-Jan-2013 16:14
No I don't think so, as it's a) Not a MS Domain, B) Not a TCL Cable Customer.
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Reply # 748350 posted on 21-Jan-2013 18:28
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I have commented on this Facebook thing last week. It seems If you go to http it will fail a few times before working, but if you use https directly it works.
It sounds like the TelstraClear cache farm is at it again.
Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog,?technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization)?
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Reply # 748352 posted on 21-Jan-2013 18:31
freitasm: I have commented on this Facebook thing last week. It seems If you go to http it will fail a few times before working, but if you use https directly it works.
It sounds like the TelstraClear cache farm is at it again.
Im on Vodafone/Ihug and I've had the odd slowdown to zero nothing zlich when using facebook in the past couple weeks as well.
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Reply # 748353 posted on 21-Jan-2013 18:33
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I was leaning to think it could be something related to the broken Perth - Asia cable, but seeing it always work on HTTPS but almost never on HTTP pretty much excluded that... Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog,?technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization)?
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Reply # 748682 posted on 22-Jan-2013 10:46
Hi everyone. We?ve looked into this and the network is operating to spec, and traceroutes don?t show any issues. We?ve also checked Facebook ourselves and have not experienced problems with load times on either Internet Explorer or Firefox. I've personally not noticed any issues at home on cable either, across three Windows devices and two Andriod.
Cheers, Gary
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Reply # 748703 posted on 22-Jan-2013 11:22
It is most definitely these 4 customer's local set ups - especially Mauricio's...lol
Seriously though, we see these sorts of things happen on TCL connections all the time. It is amazes me this issue is still apparent! You would really think TCL would get on to their caches and fix things up.
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Reply # 748727 posted on 22-Jan-2013 12:29
FYI - we are wellington home cable for TCL and like others facebook has been real bad recently.
it hangs at a redirect screen for "facebook static.ak.fbcdn.net"? which seems to be management of static content.
interesting as seems to be a issue for lots of facebook users overseas.
my family members are also reporting?there are a few international sites such as Amazon that they say are slowing down recently so I wonder if this is linked.
FYI - not a PC issue as is new and I regularly check for TSR bloat and?trogans.?
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Reply # 748761 posted on 22-Jan-2013 13:23
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Gary thanks for looking, but this is intermittent and it may be working for you now, but give some time and it will stop working again - as it happened to D1023319. Mauricio Freitas (Geekzone Admin, Devil's Advocate, my blog,?technology disclosure, my tweets, Web Performance Optimization)?
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11:20 a.m.:?Geno Smith just did himself a favor. He ran a 4.56 40-yard dash, which is the best of the quarterbacks so far. E.J. Manuel is second at 4.62.
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