N.C. State's busy week of football recruiting has led to a commitment from Thomas Teal, a big lineman from South Carolina.

Teal is a 6-2, 330-pound rising senior at Bennettsville's Marlboro County High School. East Carolina, Baylor and Illinois also offered him scholarships.

Teal visited South Carolina and Clemson on his own, in addition to N.C. State. Coach Dean Boyd of Marlboro County said that Clemson and South Carolina had not offered scholarships but had indicated that they likely would make offers.

Teal was going to visit Baylor and Illinois but decided that each school was too far from home. Boyd said that Teal knew what he wanted to do for his college decision and saw no reason to postpone the choice.

"He said he wanted to go ahead and get it out of the way so he could concentrate on his senior season and be ready to go when it starts," Boyd said.

Teal is N.C. State's seventh commitment for the 2010 recruiting class and is its third this week. He can sign the binding national letter of intent in February 2010 during the NCAA's football signing period.

Teal will be in his fourth season in the Marlboro County program as a senior. He has been a starter on both lines for the last two seasons and was an off-and-on starter as a freshman.

He plays right guard on offense and nose guard on defense and averages about 120 plays. Boyd said that N.C. State recruited Teal to play on the defensive line.

"They kept comparing him to a guy they had at Boston College, B.J. Raji," Boyd said. "He's about the same height. Thomas is probably not quite as built as that young man yet, but he's pretty strong."

Boyd said that N.C. State's coaches feel that Teal's weight is slightly excessive and that they would prefer that he weigh around 300 pounds. Teal has 5.4-second speed over 40 yards, but Boyd said that the time is deceptive in Teal's case.

"A 5.4 sounds like a slow 40 time, but you're talking about a kid who weighs 330 pounds," Boyd said. "You're not going to run him 40 yards. You're going to run his five and knock somebody down.

"He's very tough and a hard-nosed player. He's missing his front tooth and that's from playing football."

Teal had 85 total tackles last season, 15 of which were unassisted. He had 38 first hits, caused three fumbles, had nine tackles for losses and five sacks.

He caused two safeties and recovered a fumble. He was an all-conference selection last season on both offense and defense after helping his team go 10-4 and reach the state playoffs.

He was named to a Class 3-A all-state team and was all-region. Football is his only sport.