The fortunes of Tyler Bray and Marcus Lattimore showed the ups and downs of what was a historic 2013 NFL Draft for the Southeastern Conference.
Running back Marcus Lattimore speaks with the media during South Carolina's NFL football pro day on this spring in Columbia, S.C.
Rainier Ehrhardt/AP/File
EnlargeSomehow, University of Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray ? a 6-foot-6 specimen with a cannon arm ? was not selected in the seven rounds of the 2013 NFL Draft.
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Somehow, University of South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore found two knees to stand on at his pro workout earlier this spring ? enough to get him a standing ovation from the coaches and scouts present and a selection by the San Francisco 49ers in the fourth round.
In a draft where 63 players from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) were selected ? a record for any college football conference ? two of the SEC players who made the biggest splash on the last day of the three-day extravaganza Saturday did it for opposite reasons.
Bray was left standing at the altar. Admittedly, this was not a sterling draft for quarterbacks. But perhaps that's why he decided to leave Tennessee a year early year to go pro. According to one mock draft, NFLDraftScout.com, he was seventh best pick of the litter. In the end, he wasn't even among the 11 chosen.
It's a glimpse into a situation that plagued basketball for years. Many high school players, egos inflated by friends and hangers on, would enter the National Basketball Association draft, forgoing any college eligibility. When they were not drafted ? or drafted late and then let go ? they would be left in a limbo, not good enough to make a pro team, but not able to go to college to hone their skills.
The situation forced the NBA to institute a "one year in college" rule for all players, giving each time to assess his draft prospects with clearer eyes. The NBA has also started a developmental league akin to the baseball minor leagues to help those who fall through the cracks.
In the end, Bray was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs after the draft ? and as a junior, he had ample time to make an informed decision about his pro prospects. But the National Football League also has a Draft Advisory Board precisely for this reason. It offers undergraduate prospects an impartial assessment of where they're likely to land in the draft.
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To the surprise of few, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones held onto his championship belt with a first-round TKO of Chael Sonnen on Saturday night. Part of the reason it was no surprise is that finishing fights is what Jones does. He won four of his last five fights by stoppage. He improves with every fight. Against Sonnen, he used Sonnen's strength of wrestling to control him on the way to the TKO.
Akamai published its quarterly “State of the Internet” report for the last quarter of 2012 today. The report, as usual, looks at global Internet speeds, as well as the state of Internet security, the number if IPv4 numbers in use and similar metrics. Internet speeds, of course, are the most interesting numbers for users in this report. There, South Korea has long been in the lead and that’s not likely to change anytime soon. Interestingly, though, the average Internet speed in South Korea has slowed down a bit lately. At an average speed of 14 Mbps, South Korean Internet users now surf 4.8% slower than last quarter and 13% slower than a year ago. In the U.S., Akamai found, the average connection now clocks in at 7.4 Mbps. That’s up a respectable 28% year-over-year and 2.3% since last quarter and enough to rank the U.S. as #8 on Akamai’s list. Currently, about 19% of U.S. Internet connections deliver speeds over 10 Mbps+ connections. It’s encouraging to see that this number increased 90% since last year, though growth in this metric seems to have stalled a bit, as the U.S. only registered a low 5.5% increase since last quarter. Overall, the ten countries with the fastest connections saw relatively minor speed increases over the last quarter, ranging from just 0.1% in the Netherlands to 7.4% in Sweden. Globally, though, the average connection speed grew by 25% year-over-year. The only country to see a major dip in speeds since the last quarter was Guatemala (39%). As for mobile connectivity, Akamai reports that its partner Ericsson found that over mobile data traffic around the world grew 28% in the last quarter alone and doubled year-over-year. Android and Apple’s Mobile Safari are almost even here when it comes to connections over cellular networks (35.3% vs. 32.6%), but taking all connections into account (that is, including WiFi), Apple accounts for 58.7% of requests compared to 21.7% for Android Webkit. In this quarter’s report, Akamai is also taking a closer look at DDoS attacks. The company says its own customers reported 768 attacks in 2012, a 200% year-over-year increase. While this is not necessarily representative of the Internet as a whole, it’s yet another indication that the number of these attacks across the Interent continues to increase.
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