Coaching Staff

TOM BLUMENAUER
HEAD COACH

Tom Blumenauer was named the football head coach at SUNY Cortland in February 2025.

Blumenauer (pronounced BLOOM-en-ow-er) served as head coach at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., from 2022-24. During those three seasons, he led the Diplomats to a combined 21-11 record, including an 11-8 record in the Centennial Conference. F&M won postseason bowl games versus Delaware Valley in 2024, to cap a 7-4 season, and King's (Pa.) in 2023, to finish an 8-3 campaign. The 2024 season also featured a tight 13-6 loss at eventual national semifinalist Johns Hopkins.

In 2024, F&M ranked first in the Centennial Conference in scoring defense (13.1 points per game), passing yards allowed per game (164.8) and rushing yards allowed per game (62.7), along with time of possession (34:37 per game; second nationally) and offensive third down conversion percentage (49.3 percent; 21st nationally). The team also ranked second in the conference in passing yards per game (261.7). Blumenauer's F&M teams earned a total of 25 Centennial Conference all-league honors, including 11 in 2024, in addition to 62 student-athletes named to the Centennial Conference Academic Honor Roll.

Prior to F&M, "Coach Blu" served as the associate head coach and recruiting coordinator at Williams College (Mass.) for six years. He was the Ephs' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2021 and the program's run game coordinator and offensive line coach from 2016-20. Williams made a steady climb up the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) standings during his tenure, culminating in the program's first 9-0 season and a league title in 2021. That season, Williams averaged more than 34 points per game and ranked fifth nationally in Division III in red zone scoring percentage (.895), seventh in passing yards per completion (17.8) and ninth in passing efficiency (170.4 rating).

Blumenauer's other coaching positions include serving as offensive coordinator at Bowdoin College (Maine) in 2015 and at Endicott College (Mass.) in 2014. He got his start in collegiate coaching as recruiting coordinator, quarterbacks coach and wide receivers coach at St. Lawrence University for three seasons from 2010-13. The Saints were Liberty League champs in his first season in Canton.

After playing from 2003-04 at Division I Connecticut, Blumenauer transferred to Ithaca College and played outside linebacker and free safety for the Bombers for two seasons. He registered 55 tackles, five pass breakups, three fumble recoveries and two interceptions, one returned 85 yards for a touchdown, in 2005, and the following season he recorded 54 tackles, including three sacks among his 13 total tackles for loss. Blumenauer was a two-time All-Empire 8 selection and was named to the 2006 Football Gazette All-East Region team.

Blumenauer earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from Ithaca in 2007 and a master's degree in educational leadership from St. Lawrence in 2012. The Brentwood, N.Y., native graduated from Brentwood High School in 2003. He earned football all-county honors twice and was a three-year standout wrestler. He's in the Brentwood Hall of Fame for both sports.

Tom and his wife, Eileen, have three daughters, Teagan, Riley and Quinn. Eileen is a 2009 SUNY Geneseo alumna and was an All-SUNYAC soccer player for the Knights as a junior in addition to playing professionally for the Rochester Ravens in the USL W-League from 2010-11.

PAUL SHAFFNER
ASSISTANT COACH
(DEFENSIVE LINE)

Paul Shaffner begins his third season as Cortland's defensive line coach in 2024. During Cortland's 2023 national championship season he 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.

JOE MACK
ASSISTANT COACH
(RUNNING BACKS)

Joe Mack was named Cortland's running backs coach in May 2023. He previously served as a student assistant coach working with quarterbacks in the fall of 2021 and fall of 2022.

During its 2023 national championship season, Cortland set a school single-season record with 3,373 rushing yards and featured an All-America running back. The Red Dragons ranked 18th nationally in Division III with 224.9 rushing yards per contest.

A native of Dryden, NY., Mack was a quarterback with the Red Dragons in 2019 and 2020. He graduated in the spring of 2023 with a bachelor's degree in physical education.

Mack graduated from Dryden High School in 2019. He was a three-year football starter, and as a senior he set a school single-game completions record, earned first team Class C honors and played in the Ernie Davis Football All-Star game. Mack also lettered in basketball for two seasons and competed in indoor track and field for a year. Mack's father, Joe, is a Cortland alumnus and former Cortland quarterback, and his mother, Kori, also graduated from Cortland. In addition, Mack's grandfather, Joseph Mack, played football at South Carolina and Lock Haven.

BILL SPICER
ASSISTANT COACH
(TIGHT ENDS/ASST. OFFENSIVE LINE)

Former Cortland player and assistant coach Bill Spicer re-joined the Red Dragon coaching staff in May 2022 as the program's tight ends coach and assistant offensive line coach.

During Cortland's 2023 national championship season, the Red Dragons ranked seventh nationally in Division III in total offense (509.2 yards/game), eighth in scoring offense (46.2 points/game) and 18th in rushing offense (224.9 yards/game).

From 1999-2005, Spicer led a powerhouse program at Onondaga Central. The program won New York State Class D titles in 2001 and 2003 and a Class C crown in 2002. Spicer was named New York State Coach of the Year in those respective classes each of those years and received the President Gerald R. Ford All-American Football Coach Award in 2003. His Onondaga teams had a combined 68-8 record and featured future collegiate and NFL stars Mike Hart and Latavius Murray. Spicer was an assistant coach at Onondaga in 1998.

Spicer served as defensive coordinator and defensive assistant coach at Baldwinsville High School from 2013-21. Prior to Baldwinsville, he was an assistant coach at Hamilton College from 2006-13.

A Canastota, N.Y., native, Spicer graduated from Chittenango High in 1990 and played at Baldwinsville for three years prior to moving to Chittenango. An all-state offensive lineman as a senior, Spicer played two seasons at Southern Connecticut State University before transferring to Cortland to play in 1992 and 1993. He then served as Cortland's JV head coach in 1994 and as an assistant coach in 1995 before taking an assistant coaching position at Woodmont High in Greenville, S.C., from 1996-97.

PHILL WILTSHIRE
STRENGTH & CONDITIONING COORDINATOR

Phill Wiltshire began as Cortland Athletics' strength and conditioning coordinator in 2018. Wiltshire is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and also holds a USA Weightlifting (USAW) certification.

Wiltshire previously served as an assistant coach with Cortland's track and field teams. He also was an assistant coach at Carthage College in Wisconsin during the 2014-15 school year and was a member of the coaching staff at the University of Mary Washington in Virginia in 2013-14. He coached the school record breaker in the 60-meter dash at Carthage and the school record setter in both the 60-meter and 100-meter dashes at Mary Washington.

Wiltshire earned All-America honors twice at Cortland as a member of the 4x400-meter relay teams at the 2010 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships and 2012 NCAA Division III Indoor Championships. He also was a member of two winning 4x400-meter relays at the ECAC Division III Championships and four victorious 4x400-meter relays at the SUNYAC Championships. Wiltshire captured the 400-meter hurdle title at the 2011 outdoor conference meet and is a member of the school-record setting indoor and outdoor 4x400-meter relay teams. He was chosen to the SUNYAC Men's Track and Field All-Decade Team for 2010-19.

Wiltshire earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Cortland in 2011 and a master's degree in exercise science from Cortland in 2013. A native of Apalachin, N.Y., he graduated from Vestal High, where he competed in track and field, cross country and football.