Notre Dame Football: Starting right guard Tommy Kraemer out for North Carolina after surgery

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have the best offensive line in college football and lost center Jarrett Patterson last week to a season-ending foot injury (lisfranc). Now, less than a week away from traveling to Chapel Hill to take on the North Carolina Tar Heels, Notre Dame will be without starting right guard Tommy Kraemer.

According to a report by Tim Prister over at Irish Illustrated, Kraemer underwent surgery on Friday night for an appendectomy and will be out 1-3 weeks.

With Patterson out, there was supposed to be a battle for the center job between Josh Lugg and Zeke Correll. Now Notre Dame will have to change plans again, which likely means Josh Lugg at right guard and Zeke Correll at center.

While the Irish certainly have the depth to handle these losses along the front line, it’s still cause for concern when the best unit in college football has to move forward with two starters out for what could be the rest of the regular season.

On Friday, Notre Dame will take on North Carolina at 3:30 on ABC.

• Editor’s Note: My apologies for the lateness of this update. I thought I would be able to hang back a bit more this past week — and that was obviously wrong.