Zach Duval rejoined the Knights as director of sports performance for football in January 2025, after previously serving in that role in 2016-17.
The 2017 National Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year, Duval was Nebraska’s head football strength and conditioning coach from 2018 to 2022 working alongside UCF head coach Scott Frost. Duval previously worked as a Husker Power student assistant (1994), graduate assistant (1995-96) and assistant football strength coach (1997-2002 and 2008).
Nebraska's players made strides in their physical development since Duval's arrival. During Duval’s five seasons with the Huskers, Nebraska had a total of 50 All-Big Ten selections. Nebraska had two players selected in the first two rounds of the 2022 NFL Draft for the first time in seven years, helping the Huskers produce their most NFL Draft picks overall in six years.
Duval helped UCF to a 13-0 record in 2017, two years after the Knights were a winless team. Aided by Duval’s development, UCF was the nation's only undefeated team in 2017. Individually, an American Athletic Conference-record 16 Knights were selected as all-conference performers. In Duval’s first season at UCF, he helped the program qualify for a bowl game as the nation’s most improved team.
He arrived in Orlando after a two-year stint at Wyoming, where he served as the director of sports performance with the Cowboys. At Wyoming, Duval was certified as a Master Strength and Conditioning Coach by the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches association, the highest honor given in the strength and conditioning coaching profession.
Duval was the director of sports performance at Buffalo from 2010 to 2013, where he worked with All-American Khalil Mack, the fifth overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft. In 2009, he was the director of athletics performance at Creighton. The first 15 years of Duval’s strength and conditioning career were spent at Nebraska or in private business, where he founded the XPlosive Edge Performance Center in Nebraska and later co-owned and managed The Performance and Wellness Institute in Colorado.
Duval previously spent a total of 10 seasons with Husker Power. Duval returned to Nebraska as a strength coach in 2008 after previously serving as an assistant football strength coach with the Huskers from 1997 to 2002. He was a graduate assistant with Husker Power in 1995 and 1996 and served as a student assistant in 1994. Nebraska won three national championships with Duval on the strength staff.
Zach earned his degree in exercise science from Nebraska. He and his wife Sarah have three daughters, Sonja, Capri and Zolie, and two sons, Bronx and Jaggar.