At BoiseStateFootball.com, the website catered to recruits, there are eight tabs on the home page.

The most popular, much to coach Chris Petersen’s surprise: uniforms.

That’s why Boise State has embraced the national trend of frequently changing its game-day style — never more dramatically than Saturday, when the No. 24 Broncos will confront UNLV wearing all-black uniforms on the blue turf (1:30 p.m., NBC Sports Network).

The blackout has been talked about for years. Julius Brown, the former director of player personnel (recruiting), was among those who lobbied for the look.

Petersen showed the uniforms to the team Wednesday and the school publicly unveiled them Saturday.

“They’re awesome,” Petersen said Monday at his weekly press conference. “We’re so fortunate that Nike has been so great to this program. They keep coming up with different things for us. That’s the first thing. The second thing is, our kids really like them. They like to wear different things. The recruits like them as well. It’s just fun.”

This is the third single-game specialty uniform Nike has created for the Broncos in the past three seasons.

The first set — light gray jerseys and the blue Pro Combat helmets with the large horse head logo on one side — appeared in the 2010 season opener against Virginia Tech.

The second set — all white — arrived for the 2011 season opener against Georgia.

The Broncos still use the helmets from the Virginia Tech game and have reused the all-white look from the Georgia game, but it’s unclear whether any pieces of the all-black look will be used in the future.

“They’re really nice,” sophomore safety Lee Hightower said. “I didn’t think we’d ever have them. I never imagined it or pictured it.”

Fans are encouraged to wear black as well.

The UNLV game was chosen because of the timing of when the uniforms would be available, Petersen said. The school also needed to have the accompanying merchandise ready for sale.

Petersen showed the uniforms to the team in the middle of last week to try to avoid distractions as rumors swirled.

“They’re really excited about them,” he said. “… For me, as a coach, it’s easier to just stay in two uniforms — home and away. But you know, slowly but surely I’ve adapted and become a little more flexible because that’s what they like.”

OFFENSE IMPROVES

Boise State’s 20-point output Saturday against Fresno State wasn’t up to the program’s usual standards, but Petersen said he was pleased with the effort. Fresno State ranks 29th in the nation in yards allowed (338 per game) and 19th in pass-efficiency defense.

The Broncos rushed for 215 yards and threw for 120 against the Bulldogs. The passing yardage was the lowest for the Broncos in six years.

“Overall, I feel better about our offense after this game,” Petersen said. “That’s a very good defense we played against. They’re very good on pass-efficiency defense. That’s a hard team to throw the ball on and a hard team to move the ball on and score points.”

TOUGH-LUCK UNLV

The Rebels are 1-6 going into Saturday’s game. They have lost four games by eight points or fewer. Last week, they blew a 28-7 lead in a 42-37 loss to Nevada.

However, the Rebels have struggled on the road — losing by 22 points to Utah State and 27 to Louisiana Tech on their two trips.

“Every week they’re getting better and they fight and they’re well coached and they play hard and they like football and that jumps out at me loud and clear,” Petersen said. “If anybody is paying attention to their record, you’re paying attention to the wrong thing.”

UNLV was 2-10 last year with eight losses by 20 points or more, including a 48-21 loss to Boise State in Las Vegas.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Boise State’s players of the week were tailback Jay Ajayi (offense), defensive tackle Mike Atkinson (defense), defensive tackle Ricky Tjong-A-Tjoe (lineman) and cornerback Josh Borgman (special teams).

Chadd Cripe: 377-6398, Twitter: @IDS_BroncoBeat