Josh Hingst
Director of Player Performance
Hingst began his third season with the Minnesota Vikings in 2023 as director of player performance, as he embarks on his 15th NFL season. Hingst was a part of the 2022 Vikings team that finished 13-4 and claimed the NFC North title. From 2013-20 Hingst was head strength & conditioning coach with thePhiladelphia Eagles, part of a team that won the first Super Bowl title for the franchise, Super Bowl LII over New England, in Minneapolis at U.S. Bank Stadium. Hingst implements a holistic program to address all areas of athletic development, utilizing a variety of strength, speed, and power methods to individualized to each athlete.
In 2013, his first year with the Eagles, Hingst played a major role in the implementation of one of theNFL’s first data-driven training systems, introducing technologies such as Catapult-GPS Tracking, Omegawave and Eliteform–Velocity Based Training, that culminated in an NFC East Championship that year. Hingst strives to remain at the forefront of progressive and cutting-edge performance training methods, recently utilizing Force decks, Nordboard, Blood Biomarker and Microbiome testing and ZebraTracking Systems.
The Eagles were successful during Hingst’s tenure, winning three NFC East titles, Super Bowl LII and making a return to the NFC Divisional Playoffs in 2018. After the 2017 season Hingst was awarded theProfessional Strength & Conditioning Association Champions Award. The Eagles finished as the healthiest team in the league in 2016 based on games lost due to injury and finished in the top 10 of the category five times while Hingst led the program.
Prior to Philadelphia, Hingst served as the assistant strength coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars (2011-12).From 2009-11, he worked as the director of sports nutrition at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln wherehe directed fueling practices for all 21 sports. Before his time with the Huskers, Hingst worked as theteam nutritionist for the Atlanta Falcons (2008-09), where he oversaw the nutrition and assisted withstrength and conditioning capacities. His first full-time position was as an assistant strength &conditioning coach at Florida State (2004-08). He was fortunate to get his first start in the field as anundergrad at the Nebraska working for Boyd Epley, Mike Arthur, and the Husker Power PerformanceStaff.
In 2013, Hingst published“The Athlete’s Guide to Sports Supplements,”and he has written for industry publications throughout his career. He speaks regularly at conferences, holds a master’s degree and is working toward a doctorate. Hingst is a registered dietician, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and has completed a number of professional development courses in the areas of speed and movement development, postural restoration and functional manual therapy techniques.
A native of Hooper, Neb., Hingst earned a pair of bachelor’s degrees at Nebraska in nutritional science and dietetics, as well as in exercise science. He holds a master’s degree in clinical nutrition from Florida State and has studied for a doctorate in exercise physiology at Nebraska. Hingst and his wife, Megan, have a daughter, June.
Tyler Williams
Vice President, Player Health and Performance
Derik Keyes
Assistant Director of Player Performance
Derik Keyes enters his seventh season with the Vikings player health and performance staff in 2023. Keyes has spent 15 years as a strength and conditionng coach and starting his 12th year in the NFL. Keyes started with the Vikings in 2017 and helped the team earn the 2017 NFC North division title, after a 13-3 season, in which the team advanced to the NFC Championship game. Keyes was also a part of the 2022 Vikings team that finished 13-4 and claimed another NFC North title. The Vikings have made three playoff appearances in the last six seasons (2017, 2019, 2022), since Keyes began his tenure with the club. Keyes assists with all aspects of the weight training, speed training, and return to play program.
Keyes held the same position with the Cleveland Browns from 2013-16. Keyes also served with Houston Texans in 2012 where the team went 12-4, winning the AFC south division under former head coach Gary Kubiak.
During his time in Cleveland, Keyes worked directly with wide receivers and defensive backs in the 2016 season, where he was a part of one the first high performance models in the NFL. The performance model was on the cutting edge of strength and conditioning with the aim of performance enhancement and injury prevention.
While in Houston, Keyes assisted with all aspects of the weight training, speed training, and return to play program. Keyes served under the 2012 NFL Strength Coach of the Year, Cedric Smith, and helped the Texans claim an AFC South title in his lone season with the club.
In 2011, Keyes returned to his alma mater, Louisiana-Lafayette, where he worked with football and served as the director of strength and conditioning for men’s and women’s track and field. The Ragin’ Cajuns football team made school history winning the New Orleans Bowl, their first official bowl appearance, in 2011. Keyes also served as the director of freshman football development.
As a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach at South Alabama in 2010, Keyes helped the Jaguars complete their second official season with an undefeated record (10–0) under head coach Joey Jones. Keyes also assisted the Jaguars by developing workouts for several Olympic programs as well as volleyball, men’s and women’s tennis, baseball, basketball, track and field. He started his coaching journey at Louisiana-Lafayette as a football strength and conditioning intern in 2009.
A four-year letterman at safety with the Ragin’ Cajuns from 2004-08, Keyes earned Sun Belt All-Conference Honors and Sunbelt Player of the Week after recording 18 tackles in a game against Kansas State in 2008. Keyes served as team captain, team defensive MVP and earned the Hammer Award, given to the player who delivered the hardest hits of the season.
Keyes graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2008 from Louisiana at Lafayette and earned his master’s degree from the University of California-Pennsylvania in performance enhancement and injury prevention. He is a certified performance enhancement specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Some of his other certifications include the following: PES, CES, and CPT, USAW Sports Performance Coach, NSCA Member, Certified Speed Specialist through the NASE – CSS, AED and CPR.
Keyes is originally from Laurel, Miss., and raised in Lafayette, La. He attended Lafayette High School where he lettered all four years in football and track and field. Keyes was a standout athlete and was awarded all-district , All-Acadiana, All-Parish, and all-state honors. He also served as the team captain and earned team MVP for the Mighty Lions.
His father, Brian Keyes, was a professional body builder who won Mr. Mississippi titles in 1985-86. Keyes is the son of Barbara (Durr) Beardsley and is married to his wife, Victoria, with whom he just welcomed a baby girl, Nova, with in 2022.
Marqius Johnson
Assistant Player Performance
Johnson enters his third season on the Vikings strength and conditioning staff in 2023 as an assistant strength and conditioning coach and fifth year in the NFL. Johnson was a part of the 2022 Vikings team that finished 13-4 and claimed the NFC North title. Prior to Minnesota, he most recently served as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Jackson State in 2020.
Johnson is a certified strength and conditioning coach through the NSCA as well as through the Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Association. Throughout his career, he has utilized progressive sports science technologies such as StatSports GPS Tracking and helped facilitate various individualized recovery strategies. He continues to push the envelope and is familiar with a variety of methods to enhance strength, power, speed and agility.
He was named coordinator of strength & performance in February 2019 at the University of Houston after two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers (2017-18) as a strength & conditioning assistant. He joined the 49ers after serving as an assistant strength coach at the University of Tennessee in 2016.
Johnson joined Tennessee’s athletic department after stops in Texas as the head strength coach at Memorial (Port Arthur) High School (2014-16), West Brook (Beaumont) High School (2012-14) and Galena Park (Texas) High School (2010-12). In addition to his strength & conditioning duties, Johnson worked with defensive backs, defensive linemen and outside linebackers in football, as well as the school’s powerlifting programs.
Before his time in the high school ranks, Johnson spent two academic years (2008-10) at Eastern Michigan, where he began as a graduate assistant and later moved to the school’s interim head strength & conditioning coach. In addition to football at EMU, Johnson worked with the school’s men’s and women’s basketball teams, golf, tennis and soccer teams. While at Eastern Michigan, he earned his master’s degree in administration.
A native of Houston, Texas, Johnson played collegiately at Prairie View A&M (2004-08) where he began as a tight end before moving to defensive end. His younger brother, Jerrod, was the Vikings’ assistant quarterbacks coach in 2022 and now serves as the quarterbacks coach of the Texans. He received his bachelor’s degree in human performance from Prairie View A&M.
Dan Ridenour
Sports Scientist/Assistant Player Performance
Dan Ridenour enters his second season with the Vikings in 2023 as assistant player performance/sports science coordinator. He was a part of the 2022 Vikings team that finished 13-4 and claimed the NFC North title. Prior to Minnesota, Ridenour served as the assistant director of the Nebraska Athletic Performance Lab at the University of Nebraska from 2020-22.
During his time as assistant director, Ridenour assisted with the overall management of Nebraska Sports Science by working with coaching and support staffs on the integration of technologies, training strategies and rehabilitation processes to promote athlete development, health and training efficiency. Ridenour did two stints at Nebraska, serving as an assistant strength coach for Nebraska from July 2015 to October 2018, working with track and field, women’s gymnastics and men’s and women’s tennis
Prior to returning to Nebraska, Ridenour worked for Wilmington College as the school’s first Director of Athletic Performance, overseeing the training of 13 teams and the department’s internship program.
From 2012-15, Ridenour was a graduate assistant at St. John’s University (2015), strength as a conditioning intern with the University of Memphis football program (2014) and interned with the University of Minnesota football program (2012-13). He also served as the Director of Athletic Training and Program Development, Spark Athletic, in Kuwait City, Kuwait during that time span.
Ridenour is a graduate of Luther College, earning degrees in physical education and communications studies. He received his master’s in exercise science from the University of Nebraska-Omaha and is working towards his professional doctorate in human performance innovation at the University of Limerick.