Report that the OLine has now lost Kraemer
Emergency appendectomy Friday night.
Link: https://www.ndinsider.com/football/report-notre-dame-guard-tommy-kraemer-out-for-north-carolina-following-appendectomy/article_4e9de81e-d6e5-537f-9a07-d1475c21f0f1.html
Replies to: Report that the OLine has now lost Kraemer
Re: Report that the OLine has now lost Kraemer
Not a good week for losing another starter. On the bright side, it was not Covid. Hope he had a laparoscopy removal. Much shorter recovery time. Wish him all the best
Re: Report that the OLine has now lost Kraemer
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ND started 3 OL rookies in 1988 against Miami...
including 2 OGs who had never started a game before. Lugg has plenty of experience including half of last year. Unless UNC has got more on defense than did that Hurricane team , we should do OK on offense. Defense will emphasize shutting down their VG run game, including containing their dangerous run/pass QB. They will have to beat us with pass alone, which Tigers could not. We've had unavailabilty problems with WRs, DBs and LBs this season, and we've survived. Go Irish!
Is that true?
About ND starting three "rookies" against Miami, including 2 OGs who never started before? I don't remember that, but don't really want to try to chase the info down. Wasn't Grunhard one of the starting OGs? He didn't start his first game against Miami, I don't think.
Yes and even more so...
Mike Brennan and Joe Allen made their first starts ever as OGs that day. Derek Brown was a rookie TE, and Andy Heck had moved to OT that year from, I think, TE. So 2 were first time starters, one was a frosh and the other was new to his position. I probably should have referred to older players as " playing new position" and not rookies, but the truth is that was as makeshift an OL for a big game as any we've seen. Lugg is a good pass-blocker who should provide support for Zeke with reads, to allow him to concentrate on snaps and runs.
That makes that win, which was already incredible, even more amazing.
Game of the Century.
Not sure about 3 OL rookies, but there were two new starters
It's been a while, but on page 47 of the PDF file (page 44 of the summary), they mentioned that Mike Brennan had moved to OG and started, as did Joe Allen as a sophomore at the other OG spot, since Ryan and Grunhard were injured.
That was each of those guys' first starts on the OL.
Link: http://archives.nd.edu/Football/Football-1988.pdf
Interesting.
Every bio of Grunhard notes that he started “every game” in ‘88. I don’t remember him missing that game, but I was just a kid. Edit: I found a reference to it in a book titled “Unbeaten” that says the same thing . . . that both starting OGs were out, including Grunhard. I either never heard that before, or forgot.
Should be OK
UNC's defensive line isn't as strong as Clemson's, and we do have solid replacements ready to plug in. The only concern here, is how much of a dropoff from Patterson to Correll there will be.
Zeke Correll starts at center, Josh Lugg steps in at RG.
Either that, or Hainsey moves from RT to RG, and Lugg steps in at RT. He's had a good bit of starting experience, and if it weren't for the seniors / 5th year seniors playing in front of him, would have been a starter this year.
Last year, when he stepped in for Robert Hainsey, we didn't miss a beat.
Irish are going to have to tough it out just like Clemson. Find a way and do it.
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SH*t, not good. Speedy recovery!
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Ouch. Losing 40% of the starting OL before UNC is awful.
I guess we'll see how deep the OL is, and how nimble the coaching is.
It's bad for the players, but unless UNC was going to magically field a D,
It likely won't have a huge impact on the outcome. The outcome will have a lot more to do with the ND defense