Few football players are less popular in East Tennessee than senior Volunteer cornerback Kamal Hadden. At least before last Saturday when Hadden intercepted a Spencer Rattler pass and strolled into the end zone for a 28-yard game changing pick six.
But through the first month of the college football season, Hadden has been one of the top cover cornerbacks in all of college football.
According to PFF, Hadden has allowed just 10 catches for 64 yards this season with no team totaling over 23 receiving yards targeting the senior corner in a game this season. Hadden’s tied for a SEC best six pass breakups and ranks fifth in the conference with two interceptions.
The junior college prospect ranks ninth nationally with a 86.0 coverage grade from PFF and his 80.2 overall grade in September was fourth on Tennessee’s roster behind only James Pearce Jr, Tyler Baron and Wesley Walker on the Vols’ defense. That overall grade is up nearly 18 points from the grade his grade during the 2022 season.
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Hadden’s only weakness this season has been against the run where he’s struggled to tackled particulary against Florida where he earned a 29.0 tackling grade and a 52.4 run defense grade.
The caveat to Hadden’s success is that Tennessee hasn’t faced an abundance of tough competition this season. Tennessee outmatched Virginia, Austin Peay and UTSA (who was without starting quarterback Frank Harris).
Florida leaned on its run game against Tennessee but South Carolina has a pass first offense and Hadden was fantastic in coverage against the Gamecocks. The good news: Tennessee doesn’t face many lethal passing offenses this season.
Hadden and Tennessee’s defense looks to continue its strong season after its open date when it hosts Texas A&M to Neyland Stadium.
