At South Panola, people get upset with Lance Pogue when the Tigers don’t win a state championship.

At Madison Central, Bobby Hall is under siege for this year’s subpar season that has the program on the verge of missing the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. The Jaguars have lost two games in the last minute — one on the final play — and fought through injuries to a half-dozen starters to at least remain competitive, but that doesn’t matter.

Critics of Hall, who led Madison Central to five consecutive Class 6A North State championship games between 2007 and 2012, are using the down season to either avenge old grudges or say it’s not good enough. Hall should have won a state championship by now, they said. Never mind that some of Pogue’s best South Panola teams knocked Madison Central out of the playoffs four times in five years.

It’s been a similar story at LSU. Les Miles is one of the longest-tenured and winningest coaches in school history, but since LSU doesn’t win the national title every year there are plenty of fans who would be happy to see him embrace his destiny as a Michigan man this offseason.

There are likely dozens of other examples from all levels of football. The most rabid fans like to call it “having expectations,” but what it really is, is a case of success breeding insanity.

It’s fine to expect and hope for success. It’s what sports revolves around. No one except perhaps a Cubs fan wants to follow a team for years and be heartbroken every season. What too many fans forget, however, is that there’s a winner and a loser in every game and it’s not always the fault of the coaches and players when they wind up on the wrong side of it.

Take Warren Central’s football game against Madison Central earlier this month as an example. Warren Central won 16-14 when Marcus Ragan snatched a deflected pass out of the air for a touchdown on the final play of the game.

The Madison Central defensive back defended the play perfectly. He timed his jump well, knocked the ball down like he’d been taught to do, and by all rights should have been celebrating a victory moments later. Ragan, though, did what he had been taught to do and waited for the tipped ball that luckily came right to his hands.

Two players, both well-coached, did their jobs to perfection. One got the fortunate bounce and the other didn’t. It’s the way sports goes sometimes. Yet, too many fans look at the final result and read too deep into it. To them, it’s proof that Madison Central’s Hall can’t coach any more. That he should have had the Jaguars up by three touchdowns and never let it get to that point. They ignore the breaks of the game — good and bad — and dismiss the fact that perhaps the other team did its job just a little bit better for a few seconds or a few hours.

Sports is all about anticipation and hope, but it’s important to temper it with a bit of reality now and then. No one wins every game. Even the best players fall on their face sometimes. Occasionally, bad breaks and injuries happen. Fans shouldn’t lose sight of the big picture when it happens.

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Ernest Bowker is a sports writer. He can be reached at 601-619-7120, or by email at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com