Boen Phelps: Walk-On to Defensive Standout
Phelps, who came to Boise State as a walk-on, has earned himself a prominent spot on the Broncos' standout defense thanks to his "blue collar" mindset
Chris Kutz
When you’re from a small, overlooked high school on the Division I football recruiting trail, you have to find ways to stand out.
For Boen Phelps, before he was redshirt sophomore linebacker at Boise State earning conference defensive player of the week honors and making an impact on a high-performing defense, he decided to go to a team camp on his own.
Team camps are what their name suggests: camps organized by college football programs every year to bring in organized teams all at once. Point to a college football team, and they’ll have a team camp or two on their calendars in the offseason. An efficient way to recruit, the camps serve as a way for coaches to bring in teams of players in the hopes of finding the next star for their program or host a key prospect already on their radar alongside their teammates. And sometimes they find a diamond in the rough.
Phelps decided to go to the Boise State team camp in the summer of 2022. He made the decision that spring he wanted to strongly pursue an opportunity in college football. So, he and his family took to the camp circuit to get noticed and his recruitment process started. They made the nearly seven-hour drive to Boise for a four-day camp.
One thing was different for him at the Broncos’ team camp than the others, though. He was on his own. No high school or 7-on-7 teammates beside him.
“I was just a renegade.”
Among the teams and prospects was an individual standout in Phelps. He showed up as a quarterback, but shined through as a safety. Then-Boise State co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Kane Ioane saw Phelps on day one and asked him to work on the defensive side of the ball on day two.
“I was down for it,” said Phelps. “I mean, anytime a high level coach comes up to you and asks you something like that, you don't really say no.”
Ioane, who is now the defensive coordinator for Nevada, Boise State’s opponent on Friday (8 pm MT, CBS Sports Network and Bronco Radio Network), liked how fast Phelps played. His speed and his pass-rush ability were noticeable qualities.
“Once I came here (to Boise), I knew it was a place for me,” said Phelps.
Phelps is from the Spokane, Wash. area. He grew up playing football and basketball, and aspired to play at the collegiate level in one of those sports. He went to Freeman High School, which is nestled on the side of Highway 27 at the midpoint between Rockford and Spokane.
“My graduating class was 52, maybe 53 kids,” said Phelps.
He played quarterback on offense and originally safety on defense for Freeman. He was aggressive as a defender, though, so his coaches eventually moved him to linebacker. As a senior in high school, he averaged 13 tackles per game.
He had a few options to walk on out of high school. His parents, Tobin and Tracy Phelps, were athletes at Eastern Washington, which was one of his options. Tobin was a wide receiver for the football team. Tracy was a shooting guard who averaged 10.8 points in 104 career games. Phelps and his siblings - older brother and younger sister (who has committed to play basketball at Northwest Nazarene University in nearby Nampa) - would go to Eastern Washington games growing up.
In addition to Boise State’s camps, Phelps and his family went to Oregon State, Washington State, Idaho, Montana – essentially any local school in the Pacific Northwest where he could get noticed. In total, he went to around eight to nine camps prior to his senior year of high school.
“We were going around trying to get the ball rolling on the recruiting thing,” said Phelps. “It was a grind, for sure, but it was fun.”
After receiving a handful of offers from Division II schools and another walk-on offer from Washington State, Phelps decided to bet on himself by walking on for the Broncos as a safety. He made his commitment official on February 1, 2023.
As a true freshman walk-on in the 2023 season, Phelps was observant of those around him, trying to learn any detail he could that would make a difference in him earning playing time down the road.
“It was like drinking water out of a fire hose,” said Phelps. “The guys in the room were super cool to us and taught us very well, such as all the little details and the blue-collar mentality around here.”
He watched Seyi Oladipo, Rodney Robinson and Alexander Teubner, who is a former walk-on who earned a scholarship and went on to be named All-Mountain West Honorable Mention twice in his career.
“Teubs always did a great job with me,” said Phelps. “If he saw something, he'd come up to me and mention it. But also at the same time as a younger guy in a developmental program, you have to be ready to learn and want to learn. I remember multiple times that I would have to go out of my way to talk to Teubs or a coach or something like that, just to learn.”
For Teubner, he noticed something quickly in Phelps.
“He took notice from our safeties coach at the time, Coach Iaone, and that was just on scout team,” said Teubner. “A lot of the praise came from the offensive staff, which doesn't sound like much, but for them to make a point to mention him is a testament to his work ethic, even when he knows he's not going to play.”
In Phelps’ second year in 2024, Teubner and the coaching staff started to see even more of him on the field in practice. Phelps started playing in the dime package, a role for him that was a hybrid between linebacker and safety. By the time fall camp was nearing its end ahead of what became a historic season, Phelps’ performance demanded attention.
“I remember we had our leadership meeting (during 2024 fall camp) with Coach D (head coach Spencer Danielson),” said Teubner. “It came up when we talked about who's going to get put on scholarship next. And the first words out of Coach D's mouth were, ‘If I had a scholarship to give, I would put Boen Phelps on right now.’ And it was unprompted. Nobody had said his name.
“Everyone took notice of him.”
After the redshirt freshman season in which Phelps played more than 75% of his 207 total snaps on special teams, he was among a small group of players who earned a scholarship.
“That doesn't happen, especially for a non-specialist special teams player,” said Teubner. “A specialist - kickers, punters - those guys often come in as scholarship guys or walk-on guys who get put on (scholarship) because they won the job outright. Outside of that and that short of a timespan, the only other person I've seen get put on or heard of get put on that quickly was probably Avery Williams, and his story speaks for itself.”
Williams is a gold standard for a walk-on. He paid his own way when he first got to Boise State out of Pasadena, Calif. He broke through as a redshirt freshman as a returner in 2017, went on to be named Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Year twice (2019 and 2020), and now is in his fifth year in the NFL after being drafted in the fifth round of the 2021 Draft by the Atlanta Falcons.
“The difference with Boen is that never once did you ever hear him complain about his situation, ask for anything that wasn't earned,” said Teubner. “He truly just put his head down and worked. He earned his respect the hard way.”
Prior to spring ball this year, after a conversation with the Boise State coaching staff, he moved from safety to linebacker, the position he played in high school.
“It was a great conversation, super positive,” said Phelps about when he learned about his position change. “I had a mindset going in that I was just going to do what's best for the team. And the coaches told me that if I had a good mindset leaving that meeting that day, that it would work out great and I would be successful. I agreed, and I was ready to do what's best.”
With the change in position, Phelps went back to watching others around him in the linebacker room. Team captain Marco Notarainni being one of them.
“How smart (Notarainni) is, it's crazy,” said Phelps. “I would love to see an outsider watch Marco, watch film (with him). The stuff he says and what he notices is unbelievable.”
Phelps has seen his role as a linebacker in games increase as the season has worn on. He was antsy early on, but he is starting to feel himself get more relaxed as he is flying around.
He got the start against Air Force on September 21 and earned Mountain West Defensive Player of the Week honors following the win against App State. He had an interception returned for a touchdown to go along with his six tackles and quarterback hurry against the Mountaineers on The Blue, with his family in attendance to see his breakout performance.
The journey from going from a walk-on to impact player is college football lore. But for Boise State, it’s a part of its ethos.
“Boise State's unique in the fact that the best player is going to play,” said Teubner. “The only time that scholarship or not matters is when they roll out the initial depth chart. But after that, if you're out by someone who's a walk-on, then there's no bias towards that the best 11 we're going to see on the field, whether it’s offense, defense, or special teams.”
Teubner also recognizes in Phelps and others at Boise State, the path from walk-on to scholarship player is a part of the blue-collar work ethic laid out by the Bronco coaching staff.
“With a very good coaching staff with a lot of Boise State alumni, the blueprint is laid out, and it's not complicated,” said Teunber. “It's as simple as doing what they say and holding yourself to the highest standard. The tricky part about that is, it's easy to do that for a day or a week, but when you do that day after day, and you're the one to hold yourself accountable, those are the guys who seem to come out of nowhere. But there's so much work behind the scenes that that just goes completely unnoticed.”
For Phelps, the “walk-on” mindset has stayed with him.
“The patience that it takes and how much that you love the game, I think that that's a huge thing that gets overlooked as a walk-on,” said Phelps. “I'm here paying for my school just to play the sport I love. The ‘walk-on’ mindset is always something I try to keep me motivated.”
When Phelps got the news from Danielson in front of his teammates after a practice that he was going to be put on scholarship, the first thing he had to do was call his parents.
“As much as they've invested in me and just their endless support, I had to call them and let them know,” said Phelps. “We knew it was going to be a long process, but that was my goal every day when I walked in. So, when I was able to tell them, it was a lot of relief, and they were just so proud.”
Since he set out to play college football as a sophomore in high school, Phelps has quietly gone about getting the attention of others through his actions. He has gone from a quarterback on his own at a team camp to walk-on safety to linebacker on scholarship. And all of those around him are noticing what Phelps has in him.
“Boen could be pretty special,” said Teubner. “He already is.”
