Auburn secured a much-needed recruiting victory Thursday when it flipped Top247 quarterback Peyton Falzone from Penn State. The Class of 2026 prospect gives the Tigers momentum on the trail after coach Hugh Freeze fell under the microscope for a slow start to the cycle. Falzone is the No. 11-ranked quarterback in the class and the No. 183 player overall.
Falzone, a Nazareth, Pennsylvania native, committed to the in-state Nittany Lions on April 12 and took an official visit to Penn State a month and a half later. He picked up an offer from Auburn just three days after that trip to visit James Franklin’s program and eventually flipped his pledge from the Nittany Lions to the Tigers in a move that 247Sports’ Christian Clemente said came “out of relatively thin air.”
“Auburn is a place full of tradition,” Falzone said to 247Sports national recruiting analyst Tom Loy. “My family and I have spent a lot of time discussing the school and its blend of elite football and high-level academics. It has it all. I’m blessed to be able to play at a school with a strong tradition of faith and family running throughout the university and the community. All of that is very important to us. I can’t wait to be there. War Eagle.”
Falzone is a two-year high school starter and a multi-sport athlete who also competes in track and field and swimming. He won the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Offensive MVP award as a junior after he completed 146 of his 278 passes for 2,135 yards and 23 touchdowns with four interceptions. He also ran 78 times for 697 yards and eight additional scores.
At 6-foot-4.5, Falzone boasts a long frame without sacrificing athleticism. He could be a legitimate dual-threat talent at the college level.
Falzone initially committed to Virginia Tech last June but backed off the pledge late in his junior season. He later picked Penn State over a number of Power Four programs including Iowa and Utah, both of which brought him in this spring for official visits.
With the addition of a quarterback to its 2026 class, Auburn now has seven commits locked in. Only two of them hold blue-chip status, though, and neither Falzone nor edge rusher Hezekiah Harris rank inside the top 100 overall. The class climbed from No. 83 nationally to No. 77 with the latest acquisition, and the modest leap keeps the Tigers squarely in second-to-last position on the SEC recruiting leaderboard.
Freeze lost a pair of four-star commits on Sunday and Monday. He is far shy of his pace from the last two recruiting cycles, in which he constructed top-10 classes and injected excitement into a program that has been competing in the bottom half of the SEC since Gus Malzahn’s departure in 2020.
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