I believe the player you are referencing, the CB from Maryland last year, was Darrell Givens. The situation with him last year was not that similar at all to LA this year.
Darrell Givens visited OSU for the Spring Game, got caught up in the atmosphere, and shortly afterwards, he gave a
verbal commitment to OSU. I believe this happened on 04/19/08. Then Darrell Givens went to a Nike Camp at State Penn around 05/10/08 and after that, decommitted from OSU and committed to PSU. He eventually signed with Rutgers.
While there may have been some overtures from him that he might have wanted to have a ship to OSU, this post made by grad on 05/11/08 is somewhat telling:
So if your opinion on the ego thing is based on this, it is based on something that is not a similar situation. Givens
had given a verbal to OSU, that is he was not a "OSU lean" as you stated. He decommitted and committed to PSU (only to then sign with Rutgers). We all know that JT stresses to these kids to not give a committment unless being 100% sure and less than a month after committing to OSU, Givens decommits from OSU and commits to PSU!
Sorry but I do not see ego from the staff in this situation; I see the staff evaluating something more closely to what grad posted.