Recently, I’ve had a renaissance with my football-watching experience. It started with finally watching Aaron Rodgers lead the offense of my beloved New York Jets.

Seeing a competent quarterback make third down throw after third down throw and calling audibles at the line of scrimmage was breathtaking. Seemingly the bare minimum for most diehard fans, it has been a unique experience for me that has me jumping for joy with disbelief at times. The Jets’ offense looked competent — a shocking sight as someone who’s watched Bryce Petty and Luke Falk horrendously steer my treasured team out on the field over the years.

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But as of late, I’ve felt similarly watching new USC football (2-1, 0-1 Big Ten) Defensive Coordinator D’Anton Lynn’s unit on the field.

It’s fair to say that just about anything could be an improvement over last year’s defense. The tackling, the coverage, the pass rush — all of it was abysmal. USC’s defense was the only team in the nation that ranked in the bottom 15 in total yards allowed per game, points allowed per game, rushing yards allowed per game, red zone touchdown percentage and first downs allowed per game.

So, in short, it was pretty bad. There was pretty much only one way to go: up. To some degree, anyone could have been the new defensive coordinator, and we would be applauding how much better the defense is just because it’s not as bad as last year.

But Lynn hasn’t just been any new defensive coordinator; he’s seemingly already turned this defensive unit around. We are only three games into this very young season, but the difference in defense has been night and day.

In areas where the defense was as close to the bottom as it could be last season, Lynn has helped move USC near the top of the rankings this year. His defense is 14th in red zone touchdown percentage, 24th in passing yards allowed per game, 29th in scoring defense and 12th in first downs allowed per game.

It’s not just the statistics that have made the defense stand out so far. This unit has passed the eye test for me with flying colors. Lynn is taking more risks and sending pressure more often, making opposing quarterbacks uncomfortable in the pocket. Watching this defense gives you faith that it’ll get the job done.

The defense showed glowing strides in its first two games, but it showed it was the real deal against Michigan (3-1, 1-0). It might be the bare minimum, but for the vast majority of the game, the defense was making tackles on the first try.

Too many times, we’ve seen the Trojans flail at ball carriers, with multiple broken tackles on far too many plays. For about two-thirds of the game, multiple USC defenders were swarming ball carriers and wrapping them up on first contact. It was a real joy to see.

For two-thirds of the game, the defense was great, but the last third of the game showed that the switch hasn’t been flipped entirely from last season quite yet. The Trojans got flat-out Big Ten-ed in their loss to Michigan. Three goal-line formation runs right up the middle, and they couldn’t hold the Wolverines out.

Not to mention the three explosive run plays that were the only reason Michigan was in the game in the first place. It was unfortunate, and the old USC defense seemed to rear its ugly head for a few plays. But if you’re going to talk about the big plays the defense allowed early on, it’s also important to point out just how dominant the defense was in the second half.

Lynn must have lit a fire under his unit at halftime after allowing 199 rushing yards in the first half because in the second half, the defense allowed nine total yards before Michigan’s game-winning drive.

With each game that the Trojans have played, the defense seems to be performing better. While I’m sure the Michigan game left everyone with a sour taste in their mouths, it gave me hope. The defense progressively improved through most of the Michigan game, and for USC’s first away game as part of the Big Ten, the unit was the standout of the game.

It’s still early and the defense hasn’t put in a full-game performance against a top-tier team, but I’m confident Lynn will get the defense to where it needs to be. While I still have some concerns about USC’s offense, I’m all in on Lynn and this defense.

Stefano Fendrich is a senior writing about his opinions on some of sports’ biggest debates in his column, “The Great Debate,” which runs every other Thursday. He is also the managing editor at the Daily Trojan.