Orhorhoro says he has a case of amnesia, only looking forward

Clemson defensive leader Ruke Orhorhoro says the Tigers have to have amnesia about Monday's loss at Duke.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Wed Sep 06 14:35:00 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Ruke Orhorhoro knows Clemson didn’t play well in a season-opening loss to Duke, but he also realizes at this point it’s best to flush it and then let amnesia kick in and only look to the future.

The Tigers were beaten at Duke by a 28-7 tally in Durham Monday night, and execution broke down in all three phases of the game. The defense played well through three quarters but eventually succumbed to the heat and Duke’s big plays.

“We definitely could have played better. There's always stuff you can fix. If we were as dominant as we should have been, we would have won that game,” Orhorhoro said. “But credit to Duke. They played their butts off and credit to their coaching staff as well. But things like this happen, and some of the greatest advice I've got from great players that's been through this program was you got to have amnesia. We've watched the tape, watched the whole game, went through it, and saw what we need to do better, and now I have amnesia, and so I got to flush that game, and we got to focus on our opponent this week.”

Orhorhoro returned to Clemson to try and win a National Championship but says the focus has to be on each day rather than the future.

“I don’t really put a lot of pressure on myself. I just try to come in every day, every practice, getting better day by day and focus on what it takes in order to get there,” Orhorhoro said. “It’s good to look ahead sometimes, and I don’t like to get too carried away with it…there’s an end goal, and you don’t play to lose, and so obviously, we’re just going to try to play to win from here on out.”

However, he also feels like the Tigers’ goals are still attainable if they fix the myriad mistakes that plagued the team Monday night.

“Things don’t always turn out how you want them to turn out,” Orhorhoro said. “I figured we’d come in here 1-0, but man, credit to Duke. They played their butts off…It’s only Week 1; we have so many more games left to play, and Lord knows how it’s going to turn out, so it would be too soon to speak on that.

“We have so much more ball left to play, and I just feel like if we turn this thing around and just fix the mistakes that we made as a team and as a unit and just build confidence and just push week on and week out. We’re going to look up at the end of this thing and hopefully forget about this week right here, so that’s where the amnesia kicks in.”