The old saying "It's not about the X's and O's; it's Jimmy's and Joe's" was never more evident. One play stands out in my mind late in the 3rd Q. UConn had the ball, brought a receiver in motion from the outside to the corner on a run play to block the OLB. Everything went according to the scheme, except the OLB threw the blocker 5 yards and blasted the RB. The coaching was there. BSU just had an immensely better Jimmy.
This is a young team. A very, very young team. They were playing a top 20 team on the road. They were playing a team that needs to slaughter inferior competition to attempt to impress the voters and computer that gives as a default massive pop to P5 schools in the polls. They were coming off a beating from the team that was arguably the National Champion last year. What did anyone expect?
Only time will tell if the guys that HCRE has brought in have the mental makeup to take their lumps, learn from game to game, and move the program forward. But, IMHO, aside from HCRE's recruiting, it's up to Jimmy and Joe.