Larkin has no regrets about blasting Bulls

TAMPA — Twenty-four hours after creating a local firestorm by calling his position coach a “liar” and “coward” in a lengthy Twitter statement, former Bulls offensive lineman Brooks Larkin said he “absolutely” would do it again.

“I knew it would get around and I knew some people are gonna benefit from this,” Larkin said Saturday afternoon in a lengthy phone interview. “I think while this could come back to bite me in a professional setting, I can honestly say I did everything I could the right way, and was honest about everything.”

Larkin, a 22-year-old walk-on who starred at Manatee High in Bradenton, created a social-media dust-up — or sandstorm — with his 228-word statement Friday afternoon announcing his departure from football and blasting Bulls second-year line coach Matt Mattox, whom he says repeatedly has misled him about his role.

The only member of the coaching staff to whom he has spoken since Tweeting his statement is coach Charlie Strong, whom Larkin said tersely reassured him his career as a Bull was finished.

“That was a short conversation,” Larkin said. “He was upset that I called out his coach.”

Following Saturday’s closed scrimmage, Strong said he was surprised by Larkin’s statement and defended how his staff conducts its business.

“A lot of times that’s gonna happen to you where a player gets disgruntled,” said Strong, who met with Larkin earlier Friday.

“But we have to continue to just coach the guys we’ve got and just make them better.”

Mattox, in his second season on USF’s staff and his 14th year in college coaching, wasn’t made available to reporters Saturday.

Larkin, who works parttime at an on-campus rec center to help finance his education, insists he was assured by Mattox he would get a chance to split firstteam reps with redshirt sophomore Michael Wiggs in the competition for the starting center job this spring. Larkin said that hasn’t been the case.