Recruiting Area: NYS Section 6 (Buffalo area)
Paul Shaffner begins his fourth season as a Cortland assistant coach in 2025. He coached Cortland's defensive line from 2022-24 before moving to linebackers in 2025.
During Cortland's 2023 national championship season, Shaffner coached three linemen who earned All-Empire 8 honors, including two first teamers.
Shaffner's vast coaching experience includes serving as defensive coordinator at Division I FCS Colgate University from 2013-21, head coach at Buffalo State from 2004-08, head coach at Glenville State College in West Virginia from 2000-04, and defensive coordinator at Division I FCS Lafayette College from 1992-2000. He was also a graduate assistant at Penn State for two years from 1986-88, including a national championship season with the Lions.
During his tenure at Colgate, the Raiders won three Patriot League titles (2015, 2017, 2018 and advanced to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals twice (2015 and 2018). Colgate led the national in scoring defense (9.3 points/game), total defense (237.7 yards/game) and pass efficiency defense (88.77 opponent rating), and tied an NCAA FCS record with five shutouts, in 2018, despite finishing the season with a formidable three-game stretch against Army, James Madison and North Dakota State. Shaffner was a finalist for FCS Defensive Coordinator of the Year. The Raiders ranked first nationally in rushing defense (69.4 yards/game) in 2016. In all, Shaffner coached six All-Americans, three All-Patriot League Players of the Year and 42 all-league defensive players at Colgate.
Shaffner grew up and played his high school football in the Buffalo suburb of Lancaster and played collegiately at Ithaca College. He was a center on the Bombers' 1979 NCAA DIvision III championship team and 1980 national runner-up squad. Before graduating in 1982, Shaffner received the Sebring Scholar-Athlete distinction for highest GPA on the football team and was a senior-year captain. In October 2014, Shaffner and his Bomber squad-mates were inducted as a team of distinction into the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame. He earned his master's degree during a fifth playing season at Ithaca before entering the coaching ranks at Division III Maine Maritime.
Shaffner is married to the former Donna Lueckenbach of Milwaukee. Donna is a board member of the American Football Coaches Wives Association and a past president. They are the parents of three children: Jessica, Samantha and Jake.
