I’m running through the 10 most intriguing players in the Pac-12 this season. This isn’t a list of the most important players or the best — we’ve already done that. Instead, it’s a look at which players across the league have the widest-ranging potential. Who can swing the league with a strong campaign? Which players have the potential to flip a win or two their team’s way? Here’s the group so far:

No. 10 Stanford offensive line

No. 9 Washington’s Zion Tupuola-Fetui

No. 8 Oregon’s Justin Flowe

No. 7 USC’s Calen Bullock

No. 6 Arizona’s Jacob Cowing

No. 5 UCLA’s Darius Muasau

*****

No. 4: Brant Kuithe, Utah tight end

College Football Playoff. That’s the goal. That’s why Kuithe says he came back to Utah. Why not run it back? He could have made the jump, joined the 2022 NFL Draft class, and tried to bring his versatility to a pro game that is seeing a bit of a tight end renaissance. He’s a three-time All-Pac-12 selection and has been one of the primary receiving options for a championship-caliber team. As a pass-catcher, Kuithe shows everything.

“I’m glad I’m throwing him the ball,” quarterback Cameron Rising told me at Pac-12 Media Day.

Kuithe has 155 targets over the last three seasons. He was the most-targeted man in the Utah passing game in 2019. The same was true in 2020. Last year, Britain Covey drew just five more to lead the team.

Utah knows what it has — a player who needs the football.

Consider where he started. A Katy, Texas native and a 3-star recruit coming out of Cinco Ranch High School, Kuithe played running back. He punted and passed and caught passes, but he ran for over 1,000 yards as a halfback. Maybe he doesn’t have prototypical size for tight end, but he more than makes up for that lack with exceptional polish and athleticism.

Kuithe might be the smoothest tight end in college football.

According to Pro Football Focus, he led all FBS tight ends last season in forced missed tackles.

Because, throughout his career, Kuithe has been making plays like this.

And this.

And this.

Kuithe’s background as a halfback and a track athlete pokes through on gameday when he catches a sweep and explodes through the hole upfield. Utah lines him up everywhere to do everything — H back, slot, boundary receiver, field receiver, inline, even a little fullback.

While most college tight ends run a limited route tree, Kuithe’s fluidity lets him attack every level of the field and rip through routes with multiple breaks. He finds pockets in zones, and creativity helps him separate against man. In the open field, the elusiveness impresses you. The toughness impresses you.

If Utah breaks through onto the national stage this season, Kuithe feels like one of the guys with the most to gain from that extra attention.

Because even as a fifth-year player, he’s still growing.

Kuithe spent the spring working with receivers coach Chad Bumphis. This Utah pass game is looking for more of a vertical stretch threat this season, and Kuithe’s skillset makes for a tantalizing option in that pursuit. He just finds ways to get open and get into space. Utah figures to be even more creative with how it uses him going forward.

“We’re going to use him in an even more of a hybrid role,” said tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham. “He’ll be lining up all over the field. We’re going to play to his strengths — somebody that when you get the ball in his hands, he’s good with yards after catch. He can also block. He can do it all.

“We’re going to keep defenses guessing in terms of where we put him, how we line him up, how we get the ball in his hands.”

It benefits the Utes to do so as quickly as possible on any given play. He’s just so deadly with the ball in his hands in space.

“An amazing RAC player,” Rising said. “You give that man the ball and just watch him go. He’ll make guys miss every time he touches it pretty much. … He’ll catch a slant and chuck a safety and then keep running.”

It ain’t just Kuithe, either. The Utes boast one of the best tight end groups in the country entering the new season. Kuithe and Dalton Kincaid pair so well together — Kincaid offers more size and dominates at the apex. There’s Logan Kendall, the transfer in from Utah. There’s Devaughn Vele and Money Parks who traded off being the absolute talk of the town this offseason as up-and-coming wide receivers. There’s Micah Bernard out of the backfield.

If you aren’t following the Utes every day, maybe you don’t know any of those names. In terms of just raw output, Utah was a middle-of-the-pack passing game. It averaged 214 passing yards a game. The clear strength of the team was the rushing attack. Kuithe won’t shine in that phase the way he does in the pass game.

How does the offense evolve in 2022? How does Rising evolve? Steps in his game leading to more of an explosive pass game — something that can be leaned on at any given moment — and you’ll start seeing Kuithe on SportsCenter and in NFL Draft columns and on big boards and on awards lists.