Let me tell you about my best friend: Orhorhoro and Davis are inseperable

Ruke Orhorhoro and Tyler Davis are a dynamic duo on-and-off the field.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Aug 09 07:00:15 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Everybody needs a best friend, and Ruke Orhorhoro and Tyler Davis are fortunate to have each other.

The mammoth defensive tackles have been best friends since almost the moment Orhorhoro stepped on campus, and you can ask one about the other and their faces light up with megawatt smiles. There was a sitcom that ran from 1969-72 called The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and the theme song starts by saying, “Let me tell you about my best friend.” Orhorhoro, a graduate senior entering his fifth year on campus, is that way and doesn’t mind talking about Davis, another graduate. According to Orhorhoro, the two are inseparable.

“We usually do everything together. I wish we lived together, but Tyler got a girlfriend on me, and kind of turned his back on me,” Orhorhoro said with a smile. “So now she is a part of the family, too. But we do everything together. We go to church together. Eat together. Watch film together all the time. We are pretty much together every single day.”

It’s been that way since the two walked on campus.

“We really were always together, honestly. He was on the field earlier than me, and I would never say this to his face, but I always kind of looked up to him,” Orhorhoro said. “And so I just followed behind his footsteps, and he makes me better. Everything he does, I want to do better. Everything I do, he wants to do better. Ever since then, we've always been close. It started in the weight room. If I benched 405, he wanted to bench 410. It was annoying at first, but it's good competition.

“I think we are both competitors. We love to just compete, and the same thing with him. He has the same mindset.”

Davis said the bond started their freshman year.

“It was the three of us, me and Ruke and Etinosa Rueben,” Davis said. “I lived by myself and Ruke and ET (Rueben) lived across the hall from me in the dorm. We came in together, and we had to go out there in spring ball and play against John Simpson and Jackson Carman and those guys that are in the NFL. And we hit the wall together. We grew and became like brothers in that sense. We push each other every day.”

Davis even has a favorite Ruke story.

“He is just a fun guy,” Davis said. “He likes ice cream. He loves cookies ‘n’ cream ice cream, loves it, and every game day, he will go and get cookies ‘n’ cream ice cream and eat it on the bus and just makes jokes and stuff like that.”

After the bowl game, the pair had a decision about whether to head to the NFL or come back for a final season in Clemson. They decided they would do it together.

“Honestly, I knew I was coming back way before, but I wanted him to say it. I would tell y'all to ask him, and he would tell y'all to ask me, and we just kept it going,” Orhorhoro said. “But he called me and said, 'Hey, you wanna come back?' And I was so surprised, because if anything, I was gonna stay and he was gonna leave. And so I was like, 'Are you being serious?' and I had the biggest smile on my face. It was like 30 seconds (the phone call). TD never answers the phone. But when he called me, I knew it was something serious. But he is more of a texter. He is a text guy, so when he called me, I knew he was serious, and I told him I was ready.”

And like true friends, Orhorhoro can finish Davis’ sentences.

“I feel like I have to talk double because TD doesn't talk. So I just say everything for him, because I already know what he wants to say,” Orhorhoro said. “And so I say it for him. He probably says a total of 10 words out there on the football field. He does the talking with his pads. But I do my talking with my pads and with my mouth, too.”