Talking Mack: Wheaties To Put Texas Coach On Package

Wheaties plans to release a special-edition box commemorating the Univ. of Texas’ Rose Bowl victory last night over USC to secure the national college football championship. The package, featuring Texas coach Mack Brown, will be available throughout Texas within two weeks and nationally in February. This marks the first time Wheaties has featured the national college football champion on its packaging since Nebraska in ‘97 (Wheaties).

SOUVENIR STAND: In Ft. Worth, Wendell Barnhouse reports the least expensive of 37 souvenir items offered within the Rose Bowl compound was a “glitter rose stick-on” for $2, while the most expensive was a $300 “national championship letterman’s jacket.” Hats and T-shirts cost $25 each (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 1/5).

POWER OF TWO: Agent Leigh Steinberg, on USC QB Matt Leinart and RB Reggie Bush: “There haven’t been two more dazzling, marketable, transfixing superstars to emerge from one school at one time. Matt Leinart is one of the first movie star quarterbacks ... then there’s this multi-dimensional offensive force, this living highlight reel that is Reggie Bush” (L.A. TIMES, 1/5).