ESPN College Football

No. 24 North Carolina will be without two starters on Saturday when it hosts East Carolina, as both center Lowell Dyer and tight end Zach Pianalto will miss three to four weeks with injuries.

Dywer, who didn't play in last Saturday's win at Connecticut, strained a muscle in his right shoulder during practice last week. Dyer, a fifth-year senior, came to UNC as a walk-on and earned a scholarship prior to the start of the 2008 season. He has started 16 games in his career, and his absence is another blow to an already-thin offensive line. UNC was also without offensive guard Jonathan Cooper (ankle) last weekend. His status hasn't been updated yet.

Pianalto, who was in the midst of a career-best game at UConn before he injured himself in the fourth quarter, dislocated the subtalar joint in his right foot. Pianalto had career highs in receptions (7), and receiving yards (87) against the Huskies, and scored the game-tying touchdown with 2:36 remaining.

UNC coach Butch Davis said he's never coached a position that needed so much shuffling this early in the season. In August, offensive tackle Carl Gaskins tore his ACL; Aaron Stahl decided to graduate and leave the program early, forgoing a final year of eligibility; and reserve Kevin Bryant, who was charged with misdemeanor assault of a female this summer, decided not to return to the program for his sophomore season.

"We've lost a significant amount of offensive linemen over the last seven or eight months," Davis said Wednesday, adding, "a young offensive line got even younger. Our coaches have done a good job of trying to settle that group down. Those kids are focusing on trying to practice and get better with their fundamentals and hopefully it will start to pay dividends.

"One of the things you'd like to have at some point in time is consistency and continuity on the offensive line. It was a setback certainly to lose a fifth-year senior starting center in Lowell Dyer. Cam Holland came in and did a very good job for his first opportunity to get a chance to start a ballgame. We're very, very young in the offensive line. As guys get more game experience and more playing experience, our expectations are they will continue to improve."

Heather Dinich covers the ACC for ESPN.com.