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66 GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED linebacker to defensive end and having great success before signing at Purdue at the semester break. He's in West Lafayette now, readying for the start of spring practices in early March, hoping he can be a solution to the Boilermakers' lack of edge pass rush, an issue that's plagued them for the last half dozen years. Larkin might be able to. In his only year at City College, the 6-foot-3, 250-pounder had seven sacks and 17 tackles for loss, and did so despite being a novice at the position. He was a linebacker at Dough- erty Valley High School in San Ramon, Calif., and for two years at Notre Dame, but City College had a need for a pass-rushing end. Larkin didn't have a lot of time to get acclimated; it was late on a Friday night when his family called City College looking to transfer, and by Monday morning, Austin was enrolled in classes on the San Francisco campus. Shortly after, he was on the practice field. "Not really knowing the defense or the terminol- ogy or what we're supposed to be doing, it was, 'All right, let's turn him loose and see what we've got,' " City College defensive line coach Bryan Blake said, "and he gave us great effort and was disruptive. He was giving our offensive tackles fits. At that point, they kind of get used to playing against each other and everybody knows each other's favorite moves, so the new guy is in there just wreaking havoc all over the place, pursuing the ball down the field, just mak- ing a lot of effort plays and not making plays (only) because he knows where it's supposed to be. "It took him about three or four weeks to get into the flow where everything made sense to him and he understood the blitz packages and all the sub-pack- ages that we played with. But the effort was always there and it really kind of changed the dynamic of our defense the day he showed up." Perhaps he can do the same at Purdue. The Boiler- makers need to be able to better rush the passer from their front, having not had a defensive end collect more than four sacks in a season since Ryan Kerrig- an had 12.5 in 2010. Last year, Evan Panfil and Gelen Robinson, the two primary starters, totaled only 5.5. Larkin is one of two J.C. D-ends the Boilermakers signed, but the only one who will get an early jump in the spring. Rob Simmons will be at Purdue starting this summer. The opportunity means a lot. Three years removed from graduating high school, Larkin's now found a D-I home where he thinks he can be given a chance to succeed. He got a late start, he thinks, because his high school had a relatively new football program; col- lege assistants hadn't found him and neither he, his parents nor the coaching staff knew the avenues to jumpstart the recruiting process. Larkin's only op- tions back then were walking on at FCS Coastal Car- olina or at Notre Dame. He chose the latter, and for a while that looked to be OK. He redshirted his first season in South Bend, then played seven snaps in 2014. But Notre Dame wasn't right for reasons that are hard to explain. It wasn't the difficulty in trying to live up to his family's name, he says, saying instead that he enjoyed Irish fans talking to him about his father's career in the early '80s. And he didn't think being a walk-on, and not having the advantages of a scholarship player, was too much to overcome, either. But something wasn't right in South Bend. "It was just getting through the daily grind," he said. "I'm trying not to talk trash or anything right now. It was persevering when things looked bleak. "He'll give you an honest work day every day, whether it's the weight room, conditioning, practice. He's going to do the job." City College D-line coach Bryan Blake