PEMBROKE – UNCP head football coach Pete Shinnick announced an addition to his coaching staff Friday afternoon as former Azusa Pacific assistant and Austrian Football League head coach Geoff Buffum was hired on as quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator for the Braves.

Buffum comes to Pembroke following a 5-year stint in Innsbruck, Austria as the head coach of the Swarco Raiders where he helped lead the organization to the 2008 European championship. He has logged six years of experience as a collegiate coach, including two seasons on Shinnick's staff at Azusa Pacific.

“It's great to have Geoff Buffum on our staff,” Shinnick said. “He and I worked together at Azusa Pacific for two years so I have known him for a long time. He has a great offensive mind and brings a lot to the table as far as what we want to do offensively. I am very excited to have him here with us at UNCP.”

Buffum threw for nearly 4,000 yards during his 4-year collegiate career that spanned three institutions. As a freshman and sophomore at Willamette in Salem, Ore., he threw for 615 yards and eight touchdowns on 40-of-70 passing and, as a junior at Linfield in McMinnville, Ore., added 312 more yards and one touchdown to his career numbers on 28-for-55 passing.

His breakout season came in his final stop at Azusa Pacific however, where the San Clemente, Calif., native captained the Cougars to a 12-2 record and the NAIA national championship. Along the way, he completed 236-of-397 attempts for 3,053 yards and 23 touchdowns while compiling a 136.6 passer rating. He is one of just two APU quarterbacks all-time to throw for more than 3,000 yards in a season and still holds the school's single game completion percentage record (.826) after connecting on 19 of 23 pass attempts in APU's 1998 contest with La Verne.

Following a very productive playing career, Buffum remained on the staff at Azusa Pacific as an assistant coach under Shinnick for the 1999 and 2000 seasons and helped the Cougars to a cumulative 15-7 record and two NAIA postseason appearances before taking a job at nearby San Clemente High School in 2001 as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. There, he was instrumental in the Tritons' deepest playoff run (state semifinals) in 22 years.

He returned to the college game in 2002 in his first of two stints at Saddleback College where he played a key role in three bowl victories for the Gauchos. In 2002, SC churned out a 9-2 record and a Strawberry Bowl victory and, after a one-year stint as quarterbacks coach at Greenville (IL) College, he returned to Saddleback in time for the 2004 season and coached a pair of successive Division I quarterbacks in future Heisman Trophy finalist Colt Brennan (Hawaii) and Nick Nelson (Colorado). The Gauchos averaged 32.5 points per game during the 2004 and 2005 campaigns, while also turning in a cumulative 18-6 record that included wins in the 2004 National Bowl and 2005 U.S. Bank Beach Bowl.

Having led Innsbruck to a cumulative 40-16 record over the past five seasons, Buffum skippered the Raiders to a 9-2 record in 2008 (traditional season played from February to July), avenging a regular season loss to the Vienna Vikings with a rousing 28-24 victory over their Austrian counterparts in Euro Bowl XXIII. Buffum also led the organization to Austrian Bowl championships in 2004 and 2006 – the first titles of any kind for the Raiders in their 17-year history.

Buffum earned his bachelor's degree in political science from Azusa Pacific in 2000, while also receiving his bachelor's degree in physical education from the distinguished institution in 2003. He currently resides in Pembroke.