Scott Shafer

Scott Shafer (born January 6, 1967) is an American football coach and former player.

He has served as the defensive coordinator for the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders.

While at Riverside, he played quarterback and was the 1984 Northeastern Conference Most Valuable Player.

He went on to play quarterback at Ohio University in the Mid-American Conference.

As an Ohio native, Shafer attended school in Painesville, Ohio where he received his high school diploma in 1985.

During the 1985 season, he suffered a knee injury that required him to have surgery and miss the remainder of the season.

After the 1985 season, Shafer transferred to Baldwin–Wallace College, where he played quarterback for the Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets from 1987 to 1989.

In 1989, he led the Yellow Jackets to a 5–2–1 record.

In the final game of the 1989 season, Shafer was 16-for-31 passing for 237 yards and three touchdowns, throwing a 55-yard touchdown pass to Jerry Wrobel with 2:52 left to play for a 25–19 win over previously unbeaten John Carroll.

He finished the 1989 season with a 139.39 passing efficiency rating, best in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

Shafer has held numerous positions within Division I colleges, including the University of Rhode Island, Northern Illinois University, the University of Illinois, Western Michigan University, Stanford University, the University of Michigan, and Syracuse University.

He attended Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, where he received his bachelor's degree in education in 1990.

Shafer began his coaching career as a graduate assistant to Bill Mallory at Indiana University from 1991 to 1992.

For the 1991 season, the team finished with a 7 and 4 record with 1 tie.

The team also graduated a first round pick in Vaughn Dunbar who was taken 21st overall by the New Orleans Saints in the 1992 NFL Draft.

Shafer also earned his master's degree from in Education from the university while coaching football.

He went on to study at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where he was awarded a master's degree in education in 1993.

Shafer played football for Riverside High School, Ohio University, and Baldwin–Wallace College.

He next coached the secondary at the University of Rhode Island from 1993-1995.

Shafer spent eight years as an assistant coach at Northern Illinois University, the first four as secondary coach, before adding defensive coordinator duties to his resume in 2000.

Throughout his career at Northern Illinois, Shafer's players earned 13 All-MAC selections.

and the team was ranked among the top three teams in MAC scoring defense in 2002 and 2003.

His 2002 unit led the MAC in interceptions, takeaways, scoring defense, run defense and pass sacks.

During the 2003 season, Northern Illinois was ranked as high as No. 12 in the AP poll, recorded its first 10-win season in 20 years, and had three victories over BCS teams while holding them to an average of 15 points per game.

The team started 7-0 with victories over Maryland, Alabama, and Iowa State.

During his time with the Huskie Football Program, Shafer also spent time with the local community including speaking at numerous coaching clinics.

Shafer was hired as the secondary coach at the University of Illinois in 2004, after four straight winning seasons with Northern Illinois.

Working with Illinois head coach Ron Turner, Shafer coached cornerback Kelvin Hayden, who led the Big Ten Conference in interceptions and was selected by the Indianapolis Colts in the second round of the NFL Draft.

While Shafer was coaching at Illinois, the team's defensive coordinator was former Michigan linebacker, Mike Mallory who also worked with Shafer at Northern Illinois.

Mallory noted that Shafer's experience as a quarterback helped him as a defensive coach: "He knows how to get into quarterbacks' heads and what to do to throw them off their game."

In December 2004, he was hired by Bill Cubit at Western Michigan University, where he was the defensive coordinator from 2005-2006.

Western Michigan was 1-10 the year before Shafer arrived, then went 7-4 in 2005 and 8-5 in 2006.

In 2006, the Broncos ranked first in the nation in interceptions (24) and sacks (46), sixth in run defense, seventh in turnover margin and 11th in total defense.

He was officially named the head coach of Syracuse on January 9, 2013.

Shafer's father, Ron, was a high school football and track coach at Riverside High School in Painesville, Ohio.

His father died at age 53 after coaching 28 years at Riverside High.

Previously, he served as the head coach at Syracuse University until November 2015.

He was a high school and college quarterback in Ohio at Riverside High School, Ohio University, and Baldwin-Wallace College.

He has held various positions including defensive coordinator, assistant head coach, and secondary coach at major universities such as the University of Rhode Island, Northern Illinois University, the University of Illinois, Western Michigan University, Stanford University, University of Michigan, and Syracuse University.

Playing in the Yellow Jackets' run and shoot offense, Shafer was ranked 17th in the nation in passing efficiency and earned team MVP honors.