Houston ? Sorry, Vince, but you won’t be playing for your hometown team.

The Houston Texans will take Southern Cal running back Reggie Bush or North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams with the first pick in Saturday’s draft, general manager Charley Casserly said Wednesday.

The Texans dashed the hopes of Texas fans who have been clamoring for the team to pick Vince Young, a Houston native who led the Longhorns to a Rose Bowl win and the national championship over Bush and USC.

“We came to the conclusion that to draft a quarterback, whether it be Vince Young, Matt Leinart or Jay Cutler, was not the best thing for this football team,” Casserly said. “The best thing for this football team was to use the first pick in this draft to add a premier player at another position.”

Casserly said part of the decision involved contacting other teams to see if they wanted to trade for the top pick.

“Right now we have nobody interested in that first pick, so we have gone ahead and begun negotiations with two players,” Casserly said.

The public fervor for the team to pick Young hasn’t died down since he declared for the NFL Draft four days after his 467-yard performance in the Rose Bowl. The latest example came when a local businessman bought a full-page ad in Sunday’s Houston Chronicle imploring Texans owner Bob McNair to draft Young. Casserly agreed the pressure from fans to pick Young has been unprecedented.

“People have asked me to think of a comparable situation. I can’t think of one,” Casserly said.

He had many glowing things to say about Young, and said he understood the “fans’ passion,” but the Texans decided he wasn’t right for the them.