Trash talk between coaches is part of the tradition as teams gear up for a new season of college football. It seems that one of the more interesting ones will be in the Pac-12, between Oregon and USC.

Steve Sarkisian was hired from Washington to bring the Trojans back to the heights of the previous decade. It’s been tough repeating the wins, numbers and achievements of Pete Carroll, but the Trojans seems to be on the right path towards making a better job of possibly winning the Pac-12 again.

Sarkisian, who never really broke out with the Huskies (35-29 in Washington), did OK with USC last season, going 9-4 and finishing the season by winning in the Holiday Bowl, earning a #20 AP ranking, his first as a head coach. Now it’s time to take the first step, because 9-4 doesn’t impress anyone in South California for long.

So Sarkisian took a shot at Oregon, the Pac-12 champions and last year’s College Football playoff finalists. Despite not winning the Pac-12 for a few years, most would argue that the Ducks set the standard for winning football in the Pac-12 for the last five or six seasons. So in order to make himself noticed, Sarkisian made fun of the Oregon uniforms.

This led to an explosion of fact-firing from Ducks’ media staffers and supporters, including the fact that Sarkisian has gone just 0-5 as a head coach against Oregon (Washing play them each season) and that he’s been outscored 227-97 during those five games. Oregon haven’t played USC since 2012, when it ended in a 62-45 touchdown explosion. Oregon have won three of the last four games between the teams.

USC and Oregon meet on November 21, in Autzen, where USC beat them 38-35 in a pretty big upset back in 2011. This is the last game before rivalry week for both teams, figuring to be a pretty big one with a lot of implications. If both teams are in a position to win the division and go to the Pac-12 title game (who knows, maybe they’ll meet there), you can be sure that this exchange of words will take an uglier turn, which isn’t so bad for those who love to see bad blood between teams.