Anyone who has spent time on the Warchant.com message boards has probably seen a frustrated fan take few swipes at a player or a coach. Sometimes it's a simple comment about a mistake made during in a game or a questionable call, but at other times it gets downright personal.

A majority of these negative posts are directed at a few select players or coaches. For whatever reason, some people are easier targets than others. During his four years as a starter, quarterback Chris Rix was one of those easy targets and was, and still is, a lightning rod on the message boards. Anytime his name gets mentioned, even in a positive light, invariably somebody interposes a slight at his character or playing ability.

Even when Rix was at his best, some fans still expressed their disdain for the former FSU signal-caller. Shortly after the 'Noles demolished Notre Dame 37-0 at South Bend back in 2003, a Seminole fan had to be banned from posting on the website because of insults he directed towards Rix.

Then there's offensive coordinator Jeff Bowden. A lot of Seminole fans place all or most of the blame for the 'Noles' drop-off the past few years squarely at his feet, and they aren't shy about sharing their feelings. As with Rix, whenever his name is dropped on the message boards an insult or argument is sure to follow.

The constant bashing, second-guessing and arguments among Seminole fans on the message boards is something most of the players and coaches would rather not see.

"That's bad for Florida State," tight end Matt Henshaw said. "I want get on there and just rip people but you can't do that. I love the armchair quarterbacks that think they know everything about football. I want to get on there and say 'what exactly do you know? Tell me what you know because I guarantee I know five times more than what you know.'"

Most fans posting disparaging comments probably have no idea who might be on the other end of the computer screen.

"People don't realize how much we actually do read, and its all that stuff," Henshaw said. "We aren't going to say anything to let people know we are on there but we do look at that stuff."

So just how many players check out Warchant.com on a regular basis?

"It's 100 percent," offensive lineman Matt Meinrod said. "I have my computer at home and I check it all the time because it's entertaining. My parents are on it so between them and me we are on it all the time. We have 40 or 50 computers in study hall so when guys aren't doing homework they are looking at Warchant or ESPN.com. It's definitely one of the top visited sites."

It's not all bad. As Meinrod, noted much of what the players see on the message boards is entertaining, as long as they aren't the ones being thrown under the bus by fans.

"We get a kick out of it because some of the fans know what they are talking about and some of them have no clue," he said. "Luckily, the fans don't bash me too much. I think some players take heat that don't deserve to take heat and maybe some deserve a little heat."

Rumor-mongering

In addition to the criticisms of a few players and coaches, rumors can also create problems. Everybody has a source these days, but what becomes quickly apparent on the message boards is that some sources are much better than others, while a few are flat out clueless. Sometimes rumors are harmless and make for a good discussion among fans, but at other times they can be potentially damaging. In the latter case, especially when the subject involves a student-athlete, Warchant.com has a policy of deleting the post and banning the poster.

Every once in a while one of these negative rumor turns out to be true, but in reality it is often impossible to verify the veracity of the comment at the time the post is made.

Even seemingly benign rumors can create difficulties for players.

Such was the case last December and January when rumors surrounding George Henshaw coming to Florida State surfaced. The hot rumor, which was even reported as fact by a couple media outlets and one website, was that the Tennessee Titan assistant coach would be hired by Bobby Bowden as the new offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Not surprisingly, for nearly two months the "Henshaw to FSU rumor" took off like wildfire on the message boards.

"A lot of people thought it was fact," son Matt Henshaw said. "As much as my dad would love to be a part of Seminole nation, it wasn't going to happen. Where do these people get this stuff? I love when they say 'inside sources,' well who are your inside sources? I'm about as inside as you can get and I said 'no'.

"I think one of the funniest things was when somebody got a hold of the title to our land that my dad bought out in Golden Eagle and how they put it up on Warchant. My dad bought that for real estate purposes. My dad is into that kind of stuff - he found a good deal and bought it but then all the sudden everybody thinks we are moving down here. People thought they saw builders out there and I was like 'you have to be kidding me. Where do you get this from?'"

As national signing day drew closer, the Henshaw rumors only intensified, and so did the stories backing up the rumors.

"Another funny thing I heard on there was some guy got on Warchant and said he talked to Matt's girlfriend about it," Henshaw said. "Who would talk to my girlfriend about this kind of stuff? She doesn't care and it doesn't matter to her. I got on under another friend's name and were like 'who are you? What is my girlfriend's name?' I was like, 'get off of here and don't put that stuff on a website trying to make up a rumor.'"

Some rumors like this create problems for players and coaches, while others are pretty harmless. Such was the case recently when assistant coach Kevin Steele's son Gordon saw a post on a message board about a conversation his father supposedly had with a fan in a restaurant.

"I'm sitting in my den and it's on there (message board) that a guy just saw me in a restaurant," Steele said. "He called a buddy of his and said 'I just saw coach Steele sitting in a restaurant and I asked him so and so and he said so and so.' It's on the Internet and I'm sitting in my house. Gordon comes up and says 'Dad look at this.' Everybody was laughing at it."

Unfortunately, the above example is not uncommon. Because of the anonymous nature of message boards, it's easy for a poster to make up a tall tale to get a little exposure for himself. In most cases, it ends up being a little fib that really doesn't really hurt anybody. However, that isn't usually the case when it comes to recruiting.

Recruiting and message boards

Over the past few years recruiting has become one of the more popular topics on message boards of college team websites. Now a days, every personal detail of a highly regarded recruit is available via the world wide web. Not only is information plentiful, subscribers to networks like Rivals.com get to see thousands of scouting videos.

In this case, little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. As a result, multitudes of fans now fancy themselves recruiting gurus and aren't shy about sharing their insight, opinion or the hottest rumor on the message boards.

Sometimes what a fan posts is a simple opinion or an honest exchange of information, but at other times it slips into inaccurate rumor-mongering. These false rumors often create headaches, and some turn into downright migraines when they put a coach on the defensive with a recruit.

In this modern information age, most teenagers have access to the internet, and if they don't, their parents or other relatives do. It's human nature to be curious about what other people are saying about you or a relative. As such, most comments about a recruit, depth charts, academics, off the field problems, the future of a coach or staff, etc. find there way back to the recruit. That is a reality that coaching staffs must deal with these days.

"It is just so damaging in that when you go into a home you spend a portion of your home visit answering questions that have been read," Steele said. "They can't tell you who said it, they can't give you the quote and there's no responsibility to it. That's probably the thing that jumps out the most, the inaccurate information. Why that happens? I'll leave that answer to somebody else. Why people would say things that have no basis in truth?

"A lot of times it appears in recruiting that the information is being read (by recruits or parents) - they aren't asking you 20 questions and 10 being truthful and 10 of them not. It's more they are asking you 20 questions and two of them you say 'yea, that's accurate, that happened and let me tell you the situation with that.' With the other 18 it's like, 'where did that come from?' I go to work there every day and I've never heard that, seen that or felt that, and that is kind of alarming to be quite frank."

As with the generic comments about the team and players, most people spreading recruiting rumors probably never expected what they said would get back to the person that was the subject of the post.

The positive

While negative comments and rumor-mongering on message boards is definitely the dark side of team websites like Warchant.com, there are some positives. Forums like the Tribal Council or Football Message Board give Seminole fans a unique ability to interact with other avid fans of the program. Whether it's breaking down the 'Noles' upcoming opponent or debating which team got the better recruiting class, the advent of the Internet and message boards has been a boon to the college football fan.

Not only do Seminole fans keep informed with the latest happenings with the program through the website, so do the players.

"We get a lot of stories from (Warchant) before the coaches tell us," Meinrod said. "It's kind of funny. The Wyatt situation, I heard about it, him getting taken by the police, from Warchant. Also small stuff, like practice has been rained out."

Surfing the web for breaking news and tidbits on the program happens year-round, but it can be most useful when the player is out of town visiting friends or family.

"I'll get on their occasionally to see what all the hubbub is," Henshaw said. "This summer I was so busy because I was working with my brother and working out and I never really called down here and talked to Donnie Carter, which I should have, so I just popped onto Warchant to see what was going on. I heard about all the bad stuff that happened this summer on Warchant."

The future

Since team websites and message boards are a fairly recent phenomenon, college coaches, school administrators, sports information departments and website administrators are still in a learning mode when it comes to dealing with anonymous fans spouting off or spreading rumors. Warchant.com is extremely proactive banning users that spread negative rumors or make a habit of bashing players and coaches, but determining where to draw the line often become fuzzy.

If all negative expression were prohibited, it would make for a pretty boring discourse. On the other hand, if the forums were left unchecked, they could deteriorate into a free for all. Even some of the speculation and rumors often prove to be true. Part of the fun for fans to sift through all the posts and figure out which people have legitimate news to impart, and which ones are full of bunk.

With posts numbering in the hundreds or even thousands every day, it's nearly impossible to keep up with it all.

One possible solution that has been suggested is to eliminate the anonymity on the message boards. That would certainly make everybody accountable for his or her comments. However, until all college team websites agree to make this change, it won't happen. College fans have grown accustomed to speaking freely without having to worry about being exposed. If one site offers anonymity while another puts a poster's name front and center for all to see, you can bet which site most fans will gravitate to.

Talk about it on the

href="http://floridastate.rivals.com/forum.asp?sid=1061&fid=1079&style=2">Football Message Board or on the Tribal Council