From ball boy for Jahan Dotson to touted 2026 Quarterback: A recruiting chat with Peyton Falzone

From ball boy for Jahan Dotson’s high school team to one of the nation’s premier signal callers. That is the story of Peyton Falzone.

The 6-4.5, 200-pound Nazareth Area High School Quarterback is in the midst of a recruitment that has the attention of many of the nation’s great programs including Penn State Football.

“Right now I’m hearing a lot from Utah, Iowa, Penn State, Rutgers, West Virginia and Alabama,” Falzone told NittanyCentral, of the schools that are pursuing him.

NittanyCentral spoke to Falzone about his recruitment, the ties he already has to the Penn State Football program, his timeline for when he might announce his commitment, and much more, in a wide-ranging conversation with one of the nation’s most coveted passers this cycle.

As the 2026 recruiting cycle takes center stage, Falzone revealed that he isn’t ready to announce any commitments, and is excited for the process to play out.

 “I’m currently trying to visit as many schools as I can in this spring period,” Falzone explained. “Just to make sure I spend time on campus and with the coaching staffs’.”

A four-star prospect, Falzone is listed as the No. 4 ranked quarterback in Pennsylvania, by 247Sports, and is intent on making an even stronger impression this fall.

“I’m a quarterback and that is my focus,” Falzone said, noting that he felt “extremely blessed” to earn the boost in quarterback classification rankings from 247 sports.

Regarding the quarterback position, Falzone recently began training with quarterback coach Brad Maendler.

If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Maendler also worked with Penn State Quarterbacks Drew Allar and Ethan Grunkemeyer.

“He is a phenomenal coach and teacher,” Falzone said of Maendler. “He helps me tune up my mechanics and I’m getting better every single session. It is awesome to see the progression I’m making in such a short amount of time and I’m really excited for this upcoming season and the Elite 11 in May and just to see how it all comes together.”

Falzone detailed what exactly he and Maendler are working on “A lot of the stuff is just basic mechanics… making sure I get a faster release and I’m more rotational as a thrower, that’s one thing that everyone works on, getting more rotational and things like that.”

As far as the attraction to Penn State, it isn’t only the Nittany Lions who are interested in Falzone, but he has also forged some strong ties in Happy Valley.

“I’ve built a great relationship with Coach O’Brien,” Falzone explained. “Coach Kotelnicki, Coach Franklin. Obviously, with them being the local school, two hours away, essentially in my backyard, I grew up going to the games so it’s really cool to be able to consider them as a school that I could go to.”

Falzone said that Coach O’Brien and Coach Franklin are the coaches he talks to the most.

The Nazareth standout has a busy calendar this spring, and will be checking in with several of the schools expressing the most interest in garnering his commitment.

“I have official visits,” Falzone pointed out. “I have one at Iowa in April on the 4th-6th… One at Utah, the third weekend in April, the 17th-19th. I have an unofficial with Penn State on March 27th… I’m hoping to either schedule an official visit when I’m there with [Penn State] or I’ll have one done before or after that time.”

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One thing Penn State faithful might not know about Falzone is that his dad is his high school coach and coached Jahan Dotson as well.

Naturally, Falzone was the ball boy when Dotson was playing at Nazareth.

“My Dad is my head coach, he coached Jahan,” Falzone said. “I was the ball boy when Jahan was playing there. So I have a great relationship with him. I’ve reached out to him several times, you know, he’s been a great mentor to me through this process and I’m really grateful to have that relationship with him… Not a lot of people can say that.”

When I asked Falzone about his commitment time frame. He anticipated it being sometime this summer.

“My goal is to have it done by June,” Falzone explained. “Just so I can have the summer to focus on stuff with my team. It may be before that, it may be after that but [June] is the goal for me.”

Going back to Falzone’s younger days of being the ball boy for a Jahan Dotson lead team, to now being one of the nation’s top-ranked quarterbacks, Falzone will be a key recruitment for Nittany Lion fans to follow.