Ryan Shazier wasn't going to attend the 2014 NFL Draft

The Steelers selected Florida center Maurkice Pouncey with the 18th overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft.

His college coach, Urban Meyer wasn't there. He wasn't there any other year, either. There had been nine players who played their final seasons in college under Meyer who were taken in the first round. After 2014, there were 11.

Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier was No. 10 and Broncos cornerback Bradley Roby was the 11th. And they are the only two to have been drafted with Meyer present.

It wasn't until Shazier told Meyer, his coach at Ohio State, he wasn't going to attend the draft Meyer decided to make his first trip.

"I've been invited to the draft every year, whenever I had a first-rounder, which was a lot," Meyer told cleveland.com writer Doug Lesmerises. "I never went because I always felt like you were taking away from the players. And it's your chance to sit down with your (own) wife and your family for a weekend.

"And (Shazier) called me and I said, 'I don't think I'm going.' And he said, 'No, you've got to go.' And I'll never miss it now."

Something he can hold over Pouncey, perhaps. Pouncey wasn't present at the draft either, though.

It's easy for Meyer to paint it as wanting to be there for his players, but it's impossible to ignore the recruiting and public relations value being present has. If he put 11 players into the first round of the draft, it's not a bad idea to grab a little camera time so prospective recruits can connect him and his program to that kind of success.

"How many dreams do you get to be part of with other people?" Meyer asked. "That's pretty cool. What's the saying? It's not how many breaths you take, it's how many moments that take your breath away. "That was one of them."

What a salesman.