FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VIKINGS PROMOTE RYAN FICKEN TO SPECIAL TEAMS COORDINATOR, HIRE JOSH HINGST AS HEAD STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COACH

Eagan, Minn. (February 1, 2021) – The announce the team has promoted Ryan Ficken to special teams coordinator and hired Josh Hingst as head strength and conditioning coach. Ficken had previously served as the Vikings assistant special teams coach since 2013, while Hingst joins the Vikings after spending the last eight season as the strength and conditioning coach.

Ficken, the longest tenured coach on the Vikings staff, enters his 15th season with the Vikings in 2021 and first as the club's special teams coordinator. Ficken has performed many different roles in Minnesota, having previously worked as the Vikings assistant special teams coach (2013-20), assistant wide receivers coach (2009-12) and assistant running backs coach (2007-08). Ficken played wide receiver at Arizona State for two seasons where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration before starting his coaching career as a graduate assistant at UCLA from 2004-06.

Hingst, who is a registered dietitian and a certified strength and conditioning specialist, spent the previous eight seasons (2013-20) with the Philadelphia Eagles as their strength and conditioning coach. In 2012, Hingst served as the assistant strength and conditioning coach after directing sports nutrition at the University of Nebraska from 2009-11. He also spent the 2008 season with the as the team's nutritionist. Before his stint in Atlanta, Hingst spent five years in strength and conditioning and sports nutrition capacities at Florida State, where he earned his master's degree in clinical nutrition with an emphasis in sports nutrition. Hingst is a native of Hooper, Nebraska, and received his bachelor’s degrees in nutritional sciences and dietetics and exercise science from Nebraska in 2001, where he served as an assistant strength and conditioning coach while enrolled as a student.

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