Tennessee star cornerback Kamal Hadden will be undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery, as he announced on his personal Instagram on Thursday afternoon.
“This ***t far from over,” Hadden wrote at the end of an emotional post. “I’ll be having season-ending surgery this morning. The get back starts now.”
Hadden’s announcement means that the starting cornerback will miss the final five regular season games for Tennessee, plus the bowl game that comes during postseason time. The Vols’ final five opponents include Kentucky, UConn, Missouri, Georgia, and Vanderbilt.
Kamal Hadden is Tennessee’s highest-graded player in the secondary and the second-highest player on the Vols’ defense through the first seven games this season, only trailing breakout star James Pearce Jr. (Pro Football Focus).
View this post on Instagram
The redshirt senior’s impact this year has been critical for the efficiency of Tim Banks’ defense.
Hadden elevated his game during the 2023 season and has been Tennessee’s best player in the secondary this season. The starting Tennessee cornerback racked up 19 tackles, 11 deflected passes, and three interceptions during the seven games that he played for the Vols this year.
The Michigan native collected an interception against Austin Peay, South Carolina, and Texas A&M this season.
Kamal Hadden picks off Max Johnson to seal the win for the Volunteers on Rocky Top // @rockytopinsider pic.twitter.com/PZLt5Q34ic
— Ric Butler (@Ric_Butler) October 14, 2023
More from RTI: Mark Stoops: Tennessee’s Offense ‘About As Balanced’ As It Gets
Kamal Hadden played the first year of his career at Independence Community College and also spent a spring semester with Auburn but wound up transferring to Tennessee in May 2021, just about five months after the arrival of head coach Josh Heupel and his staff to Rocky Top.
Hadden played in seven games during his redshirt sophomore season in 2021 and made two starts at cornerback. The Tennessee corner then worked his way into a starting position during the 2022 season where he saw action in nine games and started six. Hadden was called upon to be a big piece of Tennessee’s 2023 defense and had been playing his best football to date before the injury occurred. Hadden did leave the Alabama game for a brief time with what appeared to be a shoulder injury but did return to the game.
With this being his final year of eligibility, Hadden’s Instagram post was full of raw emotion.
I was just getting comfortable, the work was just starting to show, I was showing the world what I already knew,” Hadden wrote. “My last year, my bag year, and I strike out.. I feel like I let everybody down. The fam, gang, the team, everybody.”
Hadden did vow in the post that this would not be the end, though.
Several players from Tennessee’s past and present commented on Hadden’s post including Alontae Taylor, Doneiko Slaughter, Wesley Walker, Dee Williams, Dylan Sampson, William Wright, and more.
2 Responses
after the flagrant biased officiating at Ala the word was the SEC would look into it but seems what they meant was look away from it .ala went the whole game wit one lone 5 yd penalty followed by two back to back penalties on the vols .the touchdown pass in the 3rd quarter the ala blocker nearly choked the edge rusher holding him off the Qb should hv been flagged erasing the td but i think SABAN is the king and dont mind cheating to maintain his false image.it goes as a loss for the Vols yet only 5 yrds against bama and 88 yds against the Vols dont raise flags in the officiating world.??cant imagine anyone using these officials for any contest much less one that involves bama its no wonder they git champs without earning them none can respect blatant cheats no matter the outcome.poor example to young men ..
The SEC probably will approve of the blatant officiating in favor of Bama .Bama 5 yrd penalty Vols 88 yrd flagged The hold that allowed the bama qb to throw a td in 3r quarter seemed obvious the fix was if…