Sam Ojuri

FARGO – North Dakota State University (NDSU) head football coach Tim Polasek on Tuesday, February 4, announced the addition of Sam Ojuri as the new Bison running backs coach.

With the recent retirement of NDSU quarterbacks coach Randy Hedberg, offensive coordinator Jake Landry will be the new Bison quarterbacks coach after spending his first season at NDSU coaching the running backs in 2024.

Ojuri, who played for the Bison from 2009 to 2013, returns to NDSU after spending the past four years in the Missouri Valley Football Conference coaching running backs at Illinois State. He was also a graduate assistant at Wyoming (2019-2020) and running backs coach at Wisconsin-Stevens Point (2018).

“This has come full circle for Sam,” said Polasek. “I am extremely excited to bring back a former Bison. Sam was an unbelievable player and is someone who can fully prepare and mentor our running backs.”

Ojuri was NDSU’s leading rusher on the 2011, 2012 and 2013 FCS national championship teams. He remains fourth on the all-time Bison rushing list with 3,694 career yards, ranks eighth with 4,023 all-purpose yards, and is among the top 10 in school history with 35 rushing touchdowns.

An All-Missouri Valley Football Conference selection his senior year, Ojuri rushed for a career-high 1,398 yards that season. He had 13 games of 100 or more rushing yards in his career, and owns the second longest rushing touchdown in school history with a 95-yard score against St. Francis (Pa.) in 2011.

Originally from Barrington, Ill., Ojuri went on to play professionally for three seasons in Canada with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Saskatchewan Roughriders and BC Lions. He started his coaching career in 2017 as the running backs and defensive backs coach at Elgin High School in Illinois.

Ojuri graduated from NDSU in 2014 with a degree in sport management. He and his wife, Danielle, have three children, Aliyah, Samson and Solomon.