Danny Jones never meant anything personal by it. He saw an opportunity to pursue a dream, he took it and it paid off.

The Cal Lutheran quarterback from 2004 to 2006 abruptly left the school before this season to transfer to Wisconsin-Whitewater. Quite a change for the boy from the Bay Area community of Pleasanton, both in terms of culture and climate. But the drastic move was worth it in Jones' eyes for one reason:

He wanted to win an NCAA Division III championship.

Some risks are rewarded. On Saturday in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl at Salem, Va., Wisconsin-Whitewater stunned Mount Union of Alliance, Ohio, 31-21, for the Division III crown.

For Whitewater's Warhawks, Jones represented a way to get over the hump. Saturday was the third straight year they had met Mount Union in the national championship game, losing 35-16 in 2006 and 35-28 in 2005. Mount Union's Raiders came into the final with a 14-0 record not only having won the last two Division III championships, but seven of the last 11 and nine of the last 14.

Whitewater already had running back Justin Beaver, winner of the Gagliardi Trophy as the top player in Division III. First-year coach Lance Leipold told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel said Jones provided an added ingredient.

"I said back in August, the one thing Danny Jones would give our club that maybe wasn't here before was something to create with his feet when things broke down," Leipold said. "That is what Danny Jones did bring us this year."

Indeed, in the championship game, Jones completed just 9 of 24 passes for 136 yards, but he ran for a couple of 1-yard touchdowns, the last to seal the victory with 1:33 left. Beaver rushed for 249 yards on 31 carries and one TD against a team that was No. 1 in the nation against the run, allowing only 24.2 yards per game.

In the semifinal against Mary Hardin-Baylor (Texas), a 62-yard run late in the game by Jones set up a field goal that helped put away the 16-7 victory.

Jones decided to transfer from Cal Lutheran when coach Scott Squires left for the Canadian Football League. According to the Janesville (Wis.) Gazette, Jones sent tapes to Leipold after seeing the team play in last year's championship while on vacation at Lake Tahoe. Wisconsin-Whitewater had a strong nucleus returning, but was losing its quarterback, Justin Jacobs, and Leipold was replacing longtime coach Bob Berezowitz.

"I knew there would be a lot of expectations coming into the season, not only for me, but for coach (Leipold) as well," Jones told the Gazette after the semifinal. "The program was coming off back-to-back Stagg Bowls, and coach was replacing a legend.

"There was obviously a transition period early on, but once everybody got on the same page, things have gone pretty well."

Well enough for the senior to be a national champion. But perhaps the biggest transition for Jones was the weather.

"The snow was fun at first, but I've had enough of it now," Jones said told the Gazette. "I'm used to 65 (degrees) and sunny year-round.

"I didn't see much snow growing up, except for our family trips to Lake Tahoe. Now that's all I see."

* * *

Now to sift through the abuses and bruises of the week just past:

n In the wake of the Mitchell Report and even before, some have called for steroid-enhanced records and statistics in baseball to be wiped clean. That simply cannot be done.

Games happened, statistics accumulated. You can't just erase all the runs, hits and pitches that were made by players, tainted or not.

The best answer for that part of this whole mess was made Friday on ESPN Radio's "Mike and Mike in the Morning" by guest Bob Costas of NBC and HBO.

Paraphrasing, Costas said Major League Baseball, in the front of its record book, needs to insert a page that acknowledges different eras and the effects they've had on the game: segregated and non-segregated, higher mound and lower mound, lively ball and dead ball, primarily day games and primarily night games — and games affected by performance-enhancing drugs.

n With the possible exception of Carson Palmer, doesn't it seem as if most of the skill-position players USC coach Pete Carroll has sent to the NFL have fallen short of expectations?

The biggest examples are Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart and Mike Williams. LenDale White has done all right, but he's not a star.

Carroll's success has come from establishing a system that utilizes a large cast. It pays off well for him at USC, but perhaps not as well for the players once they hit the pros.

• Let's see: Fired UCLA football coach Karl Dorrell is seen on the Duke campus, but the Blue Devils coaching job goes to Tennessee assistant David Cutcliffe.

Duke was 1-11 last year and has had three losing streaks of 15 or more games during the past 13 seasons.

I'm not sure who didn't like whom, but what does it say about Dorrell that he wasn't offered this job? Or what does it about Duke that Dorrell didn't want it?

• If you're a high school football player getting ready to go to Arkansas, I wouldn't plan on Bobby Petrino being around for your senior year.

• Even if you're not a football fan, Sunday's Bills-Browns NFL game in blizzard-like conditions at Cleveland was just plain fun to watch — as long as you were home on your cozy couch wrapped in a throw blanket sipping clam chowder.

• Now that the 1-13 Miami Dolphins have finally won a game, do you suppose members of the 0-14 Tampa Bay Buccaneers of 1976 are getting together for a toast?

— Jim Carlisle is a staff writer for The Star. E-mail address: jcarlisle@VenturaCountyStar.com. For more, please visit his blog at jimcarlislesports.blogspot.com.