The North Dakota State Bison are bolstering their coaching staff with FBS experience amid the recent move up from the FCS.
NDSU officially announced the hire of cornerbacks coach Eric Amoako on Monday. Amoako played at Oregon from 2012 to 2013 followed by stints with Houston Christian from 2014 to 2015, and he finished his collegiate career at Minnesota in 2016.
He served as a defensive analyst with Baylor in 2023 as a defensive analyst before he coached cornerbacks at Campbell for 2024 and 2025. Amoako also served on Wyoming’s staff in 2020 and 2021 as a defensive graduate assistant, followed by Washington in 2022 as a defensive graduate assistant, too.
He will replace former Bison cornerbacks coach Lewis Walker, who left for BYU earlier this month. It marked the second time the Bison had the opening since December 2025 because Central Florida hired Will Johnson.
During Amoako’s stint with Baylor, he worked with the defensive backs primarily. A Texas native, Amoako’s coaching career began with guiding defensive backs at Arlington Seguin High School from 2017 to 2019.
Amoako has a master’s degree in education from Minnesota, a masters in health administration from Wyoming, and a history degree from Houston Baptist. He taught geography at Arlington when his coaching career started.
At Oregon, Amoako didn’t play as a redshirt freshman in 2012 when the team went 12-1 under former head coach Chip Kelly. In the 2013 season, Amoako played in the season opener against FCS Nicholls State when the Ducks went 11-2 under then first-year head coach Mark Helfrich.
Oregon will host NDSU in 2028.
Bison Lost 2 Cornerbacks in Transfer Portal
Landing an experienced cornerbacks coach in Amoako is critical for the Bison, which lost corners Jailen Duffie and Jaquise Alexander to the transfer portal last month.
Alexander went on to sign with Delaware, which became an FBS team in 2025, and Duffie joined Central Florida. For the Bison, Alexander posted 28 tackles, six pass deflections, and an interception last year. Duffie had 42 tackles and a forced fumble in 25 career games for the Bison.
“To my coaches, trainers and teammates, thank you,” Duffie shared in a social media story, obtained by the Fargo Forum last month. “You pushed me and believed in me and made me better every single day. I’ll always be grateful for the memories we made in the green and the gold.”
“After a lot of thought and conversations with my family, I’ve decided it’s in my best interest to enter the transfer portal with two years of eligibility remaining,” Duffie added.
Alexander, meanwhile, returns to his home state of Florida, where he grew up in Tampa. The Bison signed him in 2022 despite FBS offers from Syracuse and Washington State.
Transfer Portal a True Concern For Bison
NDSU’s move up to the FBS could help with keeping players as head coach Tim Polasek sees it, and that played a role in the decision whether or not to stay in the FCS or go to the Mountain West and FBS.
“In my conversations with the 10 to 11 players that left through the transfer portal, competition level came up a lot during the regular season. We’ve erased that to some degree,” Polasek told the Forum’s Dom Izzo on Feb. 9. “We have to move forward, if we put a delay in this, it would have a three-year process. I hope our seniors and juniors take a lot of pride into positioning this program. We’ve done it in the past and hopefully we can lean into strong character guys.”
Former Oregon Player, Baylor Assistant Coach Joins North Dakota State Staff