How Peyton Falzone, Penn State's Latest QB Commit, Is Transforming His Game

"He's really wired to be obsessive about this stuff," quarterbacks trainer Brad Maendler says of Falzone, who committed to the Nittany Lions' 2026 recruiting class.

Nazareth High (Pa.) quarterback Peyton Falzone, right, watches warm-ups before an Ohio State Buckeyes game. Falzone has committed to Penn State's 2026 recruiting class. | Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Brad Maendler has watched Penn State quarterback commit Peyton Falzone remodel his throwing motion in just three months, but the grace notes of their training sessions just might be his favorite moments. Like how Falzone catches a football one-handed, the way people who aren't 6-5 with 11-inch hands might catch a tennis ball. Or how the young quarterback won't check his phone during breaks in their training.

"He's really wired to be obsessive about this stuff, which is always a lot of fun for me," said Maendler, the Ohio-based quarterbacks coach. "It's very motivating for me when I get somebody who's so tuned in to wanting to get great at this."

Falzone, an all-state quarterback at Nazareth (Pa.) High School, recently committed to Penn State football's 2026 recruiting class, becoming the third of Maendler's protegees to join the Nittany Lions. Falzone follows Penn State starter Drew Allar and redshirt freshman Ethan Grunkemeyer, two Ohio natives who worked with Maendler in high school and still study mechanics with him.

Maendler said both Allar and Grunkemeyer possess a "want-it" trait that rises above other quarterbacks. Except, perhaps, for Falzone. The quarterback and his family have made the 13-hour round trip from eastern Pennsylvania to Maendler's QB Excelerate facility in northeast Ohio 11 times since January. They will continue working together this spring, preparing Falzone for his senior season at Nazareth and his future at Penn State.

Maendler and Falzone connected in early January, after the staffs at Penn State and Ohio State recommended the quarterbacks coach to the family. Falzone, who has thrown for more than 4,500 yards and 42 touchdowns in two seasons at Nazareth, sought to dig deeper into the mechanics of throwing, which he and Maendler did nearly every weekend this winter.

Before beginning the basics of their rewire, Maendler first took notice of Falzone's size and athleticism. Falzone is 6-5, 200 pounds, has run a 4.5 40-yard dash and has reached 38 inches in the vertical jump. Occasionally, Maendler will sail a toss back to Falzone. The quarterback often high-points the football with one hand.

"I've said to other people, there's no doubt that he's the best athlete I've ever had an opportunity to train," Maendler said. "The things that he brings to the table are pretty crazy."

In my 18 years of QB training, I’ve had so many good ones but I don’t think I’ve ever had a QB who’s as physically talented as 2026 Nazareth (PA) QB Peyton Falzone.

On top of those physical attributes is a top 1% drive/work ethic to improve. Still a work in progress but VERY… pic.twitter.com/jz68N69Sp8

— Brad Maendler (@BradMaendler) March 16, 2025

Since they began working together, Maendler said Falzone has improved significantly. They started with Falzone's throwing motion, which needed some smoothing. Falzone has a live arm ("This is a kid who can throw the ball 75 yards," Maendler said) that has benefited from both tempering and technique.

"When I first met him in January, I knew right away we needed to smooth out his throwing motion, and that not everything needed to be 100 miles an hour," Maendler said. "That's one of the curses of kids who have natural velocity; every throw is viewed as needing to be 100 miles an hour. And so we've really worked on smoothing out that stroke, making it more efficient.

"The ball is actually getting out faster, but he's not trying as hard. We've got him focusing on generating power so the arm moves more smoothly, more surgically. ... He's learning how to throw with different speeds and different trajectories to be consistently accurate. We always want to get the ball on the face and chest area [of a receiver]. That's our priority, and he has improved so much there. He just looks really smooth and is putting the ball in great spots, much more than he was when we were first getting together in January."

That's where Falzone's commitment to training has been evident. They recently conducted a 3-and-a-half-hour session, during which Falzone was "mentally dialed in" the entire time. That he didn't look at his phone during breaks impressed Maendler even more.

"He's very self-motivated, very driven and has a high ability to concentrate," Maendler said. "Peyton's old school."

Maendler makes occasional visits to Penn State to see Allar and Grunkemeyer and has developed a strong relationship with the Nittany Lions' coaching staff. When Falzone committed to Penn State, Maendler knew how much it mean to him.

"I was super-excited for him, because I know that's where he wants to go," Maendler said. "He told me that he's been going to games there all his life. It's close for his family, and obviously they're very tight-knit. He also really believes that [Penn State's] Danny O'Brien is the kind of quarterbacks coach who's going to develop him to be the very best player that he can be. And I happen to agree with that very strongly."