CASTING A WIDE 'NET OVER THIS PROSPECT OPINIONS, PRO AND CON, ON CLAUSEN POP UP ON WEB.

Byline: VINCENT BONSIGNORE and RAMONA SHELBURNE  Staff Writers

JoeybagofDoughnuts is on fire inside a college football chat room.

His object of ire is Oaks Christian of Westlake Village quarterback Jimmy Clausen.

This kid is the most overhyped prospect ever. He's 20 playing against 17 year olds; his team doesn't play anyone good. He's gonna be a bust at Notre Dame. Mark my words.

SimmeringinSimi has a retort.

Let me guess, you're a USC fan mad because Jimmy chose Notre Dame over the Trojans. Get over the hate, bro. And get used to Clausen beating you down the next four years

JoeybagofDoughnuts is beside himself.

I'm glad this Clausen kid is going to South Bend. He would have been fifth string at USC. Look at the competition he plays. I've seen better players at my brother's flag football game.

And on and on it goes.

Jimmy Clausen might be the most heralded prep quarterback of all time, but the attention he generates isn't always nice.

In fact, sometimes it's downright hateful -- nevermore so than on the Internet, where the anti-Clausen fans populate high school and college football chatrooms and challenge everything from the fact he was held back one year in elementary school to the notion his father positioned Jimmy and his two older brothers at four different high schools to help further their careers.

``We've learned people can pretty much say anything they want on the Internet,'' said Jimmy's mother, Cathy. ``And there really isn't anything you can do about it.''

There's plenty of place for them to vent, too. One of the most popular Internet message boards is on the Rivals.com site.

Since its launch in 1996, Rivals.com has signed up more than 150,000 active online subscribers, 1.7 million registered members, and 2.046 million unique users, according to comScore Media Metrix. There are three to four other national sites that host equivalent message boards.

Clausen doesn't quite understand the dislike -- especially since most of it comes from people he never has met -- but he's learning to deal with it.

``Of all the things I've learned from watching my two older brothers play college football, maybe the most valuable is the fact that some people are going to love you and some people are going to hate you,'' Clausen said.

``In a lot of ways, it doesn't make much sense. But at the end of the day, you learn to deal with it. You've got to take the good with the bad.''

It's impossible to pinpoint exactly from where the hate generates.

But there seem to be plenty of people with enough time on their hands to spread it. There are at least three fake myspace.com sites purporting to be created by Clausen. And these aren't just cheesy hoaxes. Most of them look so real -- complete with pictures, accurate biographical information and links -- that naive fans even post comments hoping to connect with him.

It probably doesn't help that Clausen plays for a private school surrounded by public schools, and that Oaks Christian has rapidly developed into a national football power. The perception around town is that Oaks Christian has used its private status to import top talent to its campus.

Some people chalk it up to simple jealousy over a family that has developed three sons into Division I college quarterbacks.

``It's really a sad commentary when you get right down to it,'' Canyon of Canyon Country coach Harry Welch said. ``It's something I've found somewhat fascinating over the years, this phenomena that occurs when someone reaches a level of success and people below them attempt to tear them down.

``To the people who spew this nonsense, I say rather than trying to pull people down to your level, why not work a little bit harder to raise your level of excellence?''

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