Sometimes obvious things aren’t obvious.
Take Michael Shulikov, for example. The 6-foot-6-inch Idaho State junior wide receiver, has the wing span of a pterodactyl, holds the school record for the high jump at just over 7 feet and has great ball skills. Off the field, he’s smart, engaging and personable. Pretty obvious you want this kid on your football team, right?
To add to all that, it’s been Shulikov’s dream since he was a little boy playing quarterback in his parents’ back yard in Boise to compete in college football.
But Shulikov has had to take a circuitous route to his dream of earning a college football scholarship, a route that included an almost fluke trial with track and field, which led to a full scholarship at Idaho State, which later opened the door to returning to his first love of football.
To make sense of all that, let’s go back to Shulikov’s high school days at Centennial in Boise, where he played football and basketball before stumbling upon the sport of high jumping.
During his junior season in football, Cody Hawkins, now Idaho State’s head coach, then offensive coordinator for Cal-Davis, began a rather casual recruiting relationship with him.
“I definitely remember watching his film, and if you watched him on film he looked like 6-6, a buck fifty (150 pounds),” said Hawkins during a recent interview. “I mean he was skinny. He had great ball skills, but didn’t necessarily run great. It was probably one of those things where maybe out-of-state schools weren’t ready to spend a scholarship on him. I knew we (at Cal-Davis) only had a couple of out-of-state scholarships, and he wasn’t a guy who was necessarily in the conversation.”
Complicating matters was the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I remember April was when all the junior day invites were and I had junior day invites to a lot of the Big Sky schools, Boise State, a whole bunch of other schools,” Shulikov said. “And right when I was about to go, that’s when the NCAA had the shutdown period. I couldn’t go on any visits, I couldn’t meet with any coaches. They couldn’t see my frame, my height. I couldn’t go to those camps so they could see the big frame that also has the athleticism.”
Without a football offer to consider in the spring of his senior year, Shulikov instead was talked into giving the high jump a shot. He joined the Centennial track team with just three meets left in the season and, with very little training or technique, he qualified for the state meet, winning a championship with a jump of 6 feet, 8 inches.
His story and his mark both started making the rounds in the track world, and colleges started getting interested in Shulikov — not for football, the sport he loved − but for high jumping, a brand new endeavor in his life.
“He was green,” said Idaho State track coach Hillary Merkley. “For him, track was a completely new sport. I knew from the beginning football was something he wanted to do. He talked to me about it his freshman year, when I signed him. But his second year on the track team, he breaks the long-standing high jump record for me, and at every single track meet, the other coaches, parents, competitors are all, ‘Where did you get this guy?’”
Shulikov finished second in the Big Sky Conference Indoor high jump competition and fifth in the outdoor meet in 2023. Merkley also talked him into competing in the multi-events, further showcasing his athleticism.
As Shulikov was preparing for that record-breaking indoor track season, Idaho State football coach Charlie Ragel resigned after only one season on the job, and Hawkins was hired as his replacement. And Shulikov starting having those dreams again of playing college football.
“Those first two years I was doing track, football was always on my mind,” he said. “Even in high school, it was always on my mind. My goal all along was to go to college and play football. Chase those dreams.”
Shulikov was rooming with Cortland Horton, a defensive end on the football team, at the time and Horton put him in touch with Hawkins.
“We talked about his desire to play football,” Hawkins said. “So he decided to come out for a couple of practices that spring. He wanted to work around his track schedule, because I understand anytime you’re a school-record high jumper, you want to make sure you allow him to prioritize that during the season.”
Shulikov said he’d complete a three-hour training session for track, grab a granola bar and a bottle of water and then head to spring football practice for another three hours.
He made an immediate impression on Hawkins and the rest of the football coaching staff.
“His athleticism obviously pops,” said Hawkins. “Even though he wasn’t necessarily refined with his football movements. But his athleticism popped, he had good ball skills and he just had a ton of length.”
At the end of spring football, Hawkins met with Shulikov and offered him a full scholarship to play football.
“When he told me that, it almost brought tears to my eyes,” said Shulikov. “For him, I don’t know if he knew how much it meant to me, but for me it was everything I was praying for and everything I was wanting the last two years of my life.”
For Merkley, meanwhile, it meant that further refining that green but abundant track talent of Shulikov’s was probably going to take a back seat to football.
“He’s somebody I’ve really connected with,” Merkley said. “He’s a kid you want around, you want to coach him, you want him around other people in your program. ... But Mike was pretty honest. We were pretty real with each other about wanting him to follow his dream. I can’t say no to that. I want nothing but the best for him. I support him 100%.”
Shulikov, who doesn’t know if he’ll rejoin the track team in the spring, found an immediate niche in the Bengal passing game as a “jump ball,” red zone target. He caught five passes in his first four games for two touchdowns, and averaged more than 19 yards a catch. Not a high volume receiver yet, but definitely a big play guy.
Then he felt a “pop” while making a cut, but the doctors thought it was just a bruise. He took a few days off, then started playing on it again and felt pretty good. He went into the fifth game of the season to give a starting receiver a breather and, after three plays, he felt another “pop” after another non-contact cut. This time it was louder and more intense.
An MRI that week revealed a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus. Surgery followed two weeks later and Shulikov has been in rehab mode until just recently, when he was cleared for most football activity. The rest of his football season — and any thought of continuing track competition last winter — were gone.
Now Shulikov, who has bulked up to 225 pounds and is working hard for an opportunity to replace the departed Cyrus Wallace at outside receiver, will have to prove himself all over again on the football field.
“He’s been ahead of the curve for his rehab the entire year, which is a huge credit to him for the way he’s attacked and approached it, both mentally and physically,” said Hawkins. “But he’s got to have a good fall camp. We’re not handing Mike anything. Right now, Mike has got to earn every snap he’s going to take. He’s got a role on this team and we love Mike. He has all the potential in the world, but he still has to come back and prove, not only that his knee is healthy enough to play, but that his mindset is able to go out and play full speed.”
If it’s up to Shulikov, who will graduate this fall with a double-major in business marketing and management, there is no doubt he’ll be ready to compete when camp opens Aug. 1. Even if he won’t be allowed to have full contact right away.
“I’ve talked to Dustin (Enslinger), our head trainer, and he said there are going to be some limitations there,” said Shulikov. “But he’s been telling me since October, ‘we need you in August, we don’t need you now.’ I’m a busybody. I’m always playing basketball, I’m always running. Even with Hillary, she would always tell me, ‘Less is more for you Mike.’
“But with my recovery almost completely back, I’ve been feeling really great, honestly.”
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