Saturday’s Heisman Trophy presentation (8 p.m., ESPN) will provide a fitting cap for a college football regular season that seemed preordained as never before.

All three finalists – running back Reggie Bush and quarterback Matt Leinart of Southern California and quarterback Vince Young of Texas – play for the two schools that will face off at the Rose Bowl for the national championship on January 4. None is a surprise contender. Leinart won last year, when Bush was a fellow finalist, and Young’s spot on the podium in New York seemed all but assured after his Michael Vick-esque performance in last season’s Rose Bowl.

Just as USC and Texas were so far ahead of the pack, beginning the year ranked nos. 1-2 in the preseason polls and finishing the regular season in the same spot,so too were the three finalists. Bush, Leinart, and Young were such obvious choices that the Downtown Athletic Club chose not to invite any other finalists to the ceremony.

And just as the college football world has spent much of the season arguing “who’s number one” among the Trojans and Longhorns, so too have each of the finalists had their moments leading the Heisman debate.

As the defending winner and a surprise returnee to college for his senior season, Leinart was the early leader. If public perception is any guide,he’s probably fallen to second or third in the debate. But the fact that Leinart probably won’t join Ohio State’s Archie Griffin as the only two-time winner of the award is no fault of his own. In many ways, Leinart has actually been better than he was a year ago, with a slightly higher quarterback rating and yards-per-attempt average, and far fewer sacks.

The most remarkable aspect of Leinart’s career at USC has been his consistency. He’s 37-1 as a starter and is on the verge of an unprecedented third straight national championship.To have maintained that consistency this season, under the burden of impossibly high expectations and with a huge target on his chest, is his most remarkable feat.

Leinart also deserves the edge in another category. Heisman winners often earn their trophies with spectacular individual moments that will be remembered for years to come. Think of Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary pass to beat Miami or Desmond Howard’s punt return/Heisman pose against Ohio State.While both Bush and Young have had many memorable plays this season, Leinart provided two of the most transcendent plays (the second with a notable assist from Bush) of this or any other season .

Faced with a 4th-and-9 at his own 26 in the final 90 seconds at an unbelievably loud Notre Dame Stadium,an exhausted Leinart calmly called an audible and floated a picture-perfect pass to Dwayne Jarrett that went for 61 yards. Had Leinart not won the Trophy last year, that play alone might have been enough to seal it for him, but he nearly topped it by surprising the Notre Dame defense to sneak for the winning touchdown a few plays later,helped into the end zone with a timely shove from Bush.

While Leinart may have provided the season’s signature play, it is Bush that has generated the most buzz. Not since Michael Vick’s freshman season at Virginia Tech in 1999 has there been a player with the “it” factor of Bush – the ability to draw television viewers just to see what he’ll do next.

As a running back,you don’t become a Heisman finalist without at least 1,000 yards rushing – except if you’re Reggie Bush. Last season, he ran for 908 and made his way to Manhattan on the laurels of some highlight reel maneuvers. The lack of gaudy numbers may have cost Bush the award last year,but there are no such concerns in 2005.Bush put together five straight 100-yard rushing games early in the season despite never carrying more than 20 times. That string was capped by a 15-carry, 160-yard, threetouchdown day against Notre Dame.

If that game game pushed Bush toward the top of voters’ ballots,it was his performance against a far lesserknown opponent that may have put him over the top. After a two-game lull in his production, Bush exploded for 513 all-purpose yards, including 294 rushing on 23 carries, as USC rallied to defeat Fresno State 50-42 and push its record to 11-0. Bush followed that performance with 260 yards on 24 carries against UCLA. If a successful Heisman campaign requires a strong finish, you can put a check by Bush’s name.

Much like Bush, Texas’s Young is a multi-purpose threat. Known primarily as a runner entering the season,Young made tremendous strides as a passer this season, completing nearly 64% of his throws for 2,769 yards and 26 touchdowns against 10 interceptions. But those numbers alone would not make him Heisman-worthy were they not accompanied by 887 yards and another 10 touchdowns rushing.

During the course of the season, Young provided memorable moments with both his arm (a late, game-winning touchdown pass to win at Ohio State that helped him surpass Leinart as the early Heisman favorite) and his legs (an 80-yard touchdown run shortly after halftime against Oklahoma State in a game the Longhorns were trailing badly).

Young was a big-play machine all season, averaging 28 yards per touchdown pass and turning in six runs of better than 45 yards. If there’s a knock against him in the Heisman race, it’s that Texas’s schedule peaked with that win over Ohio State on September 10, and the Longhorns were largely on cruise control the rest of the way, capping their regular season with a 70-3 trouncing of Colorado in the Big 12 championship game.

The schedule that Leinart and Bush tackled wasn’t exactly loaded with landmines, but games against Oregon, Arizona State, Notre Dame, Fresno State, and UCLA were among the biggest games on the calendar each of those weeks. As such, they garnered a lion’s share of the national spotlight.Winning back-to-back national titles in the nation’s second-largest city doesn’t hurt the Q-rating, either.

The debate over who will win the Heisman seems more clear-cut. After Bush’s two-game closing act, it would be a shock to hear anyone’s name but his called Saturday night. He has the numbers, the huge performances in big games, and the championship-team pedigree that are Heisman prerequisites.Though the USC vote may be split between Bush and Leinart, the fact that Leinart won last year probably works in the tailback’s favor. And he closed the season with a groundswell of support that had ABC announcers openly questioning whether he would strike the Heisman pose against UCLA.

The momentum for Bush is so strong that the real mystery to be revealed Saturday night is whose name sits atop Leinart’s ballot? Like all former winners, he has a vote.

Mr. Levine is a writer for the statistical Web site FootballOutsiders.com.