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 en

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