Orhorhoro ready to play more significant role

Brent Venables’ defense had nine of 11 starters returning this season, but this number continues to dwindle as injuries start to accumulate. 

Linebacker Baylon Spector and safety Nolan Turner, suffered injuries earlier this season, but recently Clemson’s defensive line has taken numerous hits. Defensive tackle Tyler Davis is out indefinitely, and after last weekend’s loss to North Carolina State, Bryan Bresee’s season came to an abrupt halt, succumbing to an ACL tear.

As a result, younger guys will have to step up to the plate, but the depth that Venables has developed on defense is something he is confident in going forward.  Defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro entered the season third on the depth chart at defensive tackle, but after Week 4, he is a definite starter.

“It’s not pressure. It’s what they recruited me here to do,” Orhorhoro said. “I just got to go out there and play and just do me.”

As a redshirt sophomore, Orhorhoro is extremely capable of the responsibility he has of becoming a more vocal leader.

“Just me getting the younger guys in the film room more and helping them take care of their bodies and doing the little extra workouts at the end of practice to fortify our bodies for this long season,” he said. “Just teaching them how to handle adversity because I know that this is not how we expected things to go. When you’re out there battling with your guys, you’re ready to put your body on the line for them, and that’s what I’ve seen in (James) Skalski, Baylon and Bryan.”

Refusing to look in the rearview mirror, Orhorhoro is optimistic that the Tigers will turn things around as he sees the hunger and the drive in his teammates.

“I know it’s not going how we wanted it to go, but everything in life doesn’t go your way,” he said. “That’s when you have to dig deep and find what it is that keeps pushing you. There are so many guys that the world has yet to see, and now is their chance to go out there and do what they were recruited to do.”