This is the Mike Garrett whom friends and close colleagues have come to know:
A man devoted to his second wife, Suzanne, and four kids, including 5-year-old twin boys who came along late in life. A stern boss who can laugh in meetings and takes time to counsel athletes about schoolwork.
Not that he shows any of this in public, his feelings hidden behind that stony face. Blame arrogance or introversion or defensiveness. Perhaps a little of each.
"Some people choose to be warm and fuzzy," says an athletic department official from a Pacific 10 Conference school, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Some people just choose to get the job done."
Yet, when Garrett's wife and USC senior vice president Martha Harris, a close aide to Sample, suggested opening up, he relented.
"They said it was time," he says a bit wearily. "I do listen."
With the NCAA infractions committee meeting Thursday through Saturday in Tempe, Ariz., it occurs to him that his time at USC might have gone more smoothly had he been less guarded.
Either way, the tears and the occasional lump in his throat suggest that explaining himself is not easy.
"I guess I don't share this," he says. "This is not what I normally do."
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