‘Dream come true:’ Boise State to play before one of its largest crowds ever

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Less than three years ago, Boen Phelps was playing football in front of crowds of about 200 people. The redshirt sophomore linebacker has slowly worked his way from walk-on to steady contributor for Boise State football since his high school days, when he was gearing up for Freeman High School in Freeman, Washington, about 30 minutes outside of Spokane.

Freeman is an unincorporated community, so small that it’s simply labeled as a “human settlement” on Google. In just a few days, Phelps will be with his teammates playing in front of a crowd of 80,795 at Notre Dame Stadium, where the Broncos will take on the No. 21 Fighting Irish in South Bend, Indiana.

Phelps will be playing in front of a crowd that’s about 16 times the population of all the households in the entire of Freeman School District back in Washington state.

“It’s crazy,” Phelps said Tuesday. “It’s definitely crazy to say out loud. But it’s just a blessing, a bucket list, a dream come true.”

Phelps has played his first meaningful string of snaps in recent weeks and had an interception he returned for a touchdown last Saturday in a 47-14 win over App State. And though the contrast might be stark for him playing at Notre Dame, he’s hardly the only one.

Boise State has played in some big games in recent years, in some big stadiums, but nearly the entire roster has not experienced this.

The one player with a lot of time spent in such a huge facility is redshirt junior cornerback Jaden Mickey — who transferred from Notre Dame to Boise State this offseason.

However, a serious injury last weekend put his playing status for this coming weekend in doubt. He will travel with the team regardless.

Notre Dame announced Saturday evening’s game is sold out, so this will be the fourth-largest crowd that Boise State’s football program has ever experienced, behind only a 2001 game at South Carolina’s Williams-Brice Stadium (83,019); against Virginia Tech at FedEx Field in 2010 (86,587); and the 2005 trip to Georgia’s Sanford Stadium (92,746).

The closest some of the current Broncos have come to this level is the 2023 season opener at Husky Stadium against Washington, which drew 67,475; the game at Oregon’s Autzen Stadium last season (58,134); and the Fiesta Bowl last year in the College Football Playoff, where Penn State beat Boise State in front of 63,854.

Despite losses in all of those games, senior defensive lineman Braxton Fely said he thinks the experience matters.

“I think it does make it easier,” Fely said last Saturday after the win over App State. “I feel that if you prepare too much, it can kind of mess up the mind. So you just gotta take it as it’s another game, and it’s another opponent, and you have to respect them as they are.”

Boise State and head coach Spencer Danielson will try to treat it as just another game, but visiting such a cathedral of college football creates excitement.

“From ‘Rudy’ to South Bend to Touchdown Jesus. … I mean, there’s so much amazing history attached to Notre Dame,” Danielson said this week. “And I’ve never been there. I’m fired up as a coach, fired up as just a fan of college football, to be able to be a part of this game with our players.”

Defensive coordinator Erik Chinander has spent time coaching in front of large crowds, having been an assistant coach at Oregon and Nebraska, which plays in an 85,458-seat stadium. He said the big-game experiences last year won’t make the Notre Dame game any easier, but the size of the crowd and stadium will come as less of a shock.

Offensive coordinator Nate Potter is concerned about the noise.

“We’ve got to be able to handle the crowd noise,” Potter said. “There’s a lot of different things that we’ve got to focus on and practice and prepare for, and that’s one of them.”

One potential idea? The old standby of pumping in fan noise during practice.

“It’s hard to simulate the real deal,” Potter said. “But we’ve got pretty nice speakers these days, so we can pump some noise wherever we need it, and we’re gonna be doing a bunch of that.”

Boise State at Notre Dame

When: 1:30 p.m. Mountain time Saturday

Where: Notre Dame Stadium (80,795, turf), South Bend, Indiana

TV: NBC (Dan Hicks, Jason Garrett)

Radio: KBOI 670 AM/KTIK 93.1 FM (Bob Behler, Pete Cavender)

Records: Boise State 3-1; Notre Dame 2-2

Series: First meeting

Vegas betting line: Notre Dame by 19.5 Weather: 88 degrees, sunny, 3% chance of rain