Irrational criticism and harsh words are not new elements to the social media sphere. Particularly when it comes to athletes, fans aren’t afraid to point out someone’s shortcomings in 140 characters or less.

Tyler O’Connor has unfortunately become a prime target.

The Michigan State quarterback isn’t off to the best start this season, but hasn’t been woefully bad, either. Through four games, he’s completed over 60 percent of his passes, thrown eight TDs and five interceptions. But most are looking at the Spartans’ last two contests, a 30-6 loss to Wisconsin and the 24-21 upset defeat at Indiana, and throwing angst towards O’Connor.

In a column for the Lansing State Journal, writer Graham Couch included some of the tweets sent to O’Connor in his column.

– From Kyle Suminski @Kyle_Sum at 11:12 p.m.: “How F—— bad are you? @TylerOConnor7”

– From Michael Carreras @NotTheFakeMikeC at 11:03 p.m.: “TylerOconnor7 hopefully you’re not as dumb as you look because you SUCK at football #findabackupplan”

– From Robb @TheRobbSkinner at 10:47 p.m.: “@TylerOConnor7 please do us all a favor and step down. You are an absolute disgrace to Spartan QB’s”

– From Matt @LukeBryanSucks at 10:43 p.m.: “@TylerOconnor7 you f—– suck.”

It’s always unfortunate to see individuals heave this type of abuse behind a screen and a keyboard, especially when it’s aimed at 18 to 22-year-olds.

Couch mentions in the article that O’Connor is fair game for criticism, but that what has been said to and about him by several people on Twitter has been wildly inappropriate. You can read the full column here.

Michigan State will play BYU this weekend and will get a chance to notch its first B1G win of the season on Oct. 15 against Northwestern.