CLEMSON — After a loss to Duke to open the season, it’s easy to get down in the dumps and starting asking questions. For defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro, it’s another day at the office.

That might seem odd to some people, but Orhorhoro’s aura is part of what makes him the player he is. He’s frustrated after the upset to start the season, especially considering he put the NFL dream on hold to return for another year as a Tiger. When asked the hardest part about the loss, he joked, saying the ride back at 5 a.m. just a few hours after the clock hit 0:00 was the worst.

Don’t get it twisted though, Orhorhoro has seen his fare share of tough moments over his first four years. The loss hurts him but he’s got his constant smile on, maintaining a level head, knowing Clemson has a lot in front of them this season.

“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.”

Orhorhoro mentioned the College Football Playoff goals the Tigers had and he’s not wavering from that dream. As his teammates have reiterated, it’s Week 1 and there’s no reason to jump off the ship yet. Orhorhoro emphasized amnesia, which linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. mentioned postgame, and he believes this week will be long forgotten at the end of the season.

“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 buts 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 pushing 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.”

The Tigers can begin that journey to overcome the early blunder Saturday, when Charleston Southern comes to Death Valley to take on the Tigers at 2:15 p.m. with a home Clemson crowd watching.