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Tennessee's Kamal Hadden done for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•10/26/23•

GrantRamey

Kamal Hadden

Tennessee cornerback Kamal Hadden is done for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery, he announced on social media on Thursday. The redshirt senior left last week’s 34-20 loss at Alabama holding his shoulder after a tackle near the sidelines and only briefly returned to the game.

Hadden was having the best season of his Tennessee career before the injury, recording 19 tackles, intercepting three passes and breaking up eight more over seven games.

According to Pro Football Focus stats, Hadden allowed 12 receptions on 33 targets this season with six passes broken up and the three interceptions. He was called for just two penalties in the seven games.

Kamal Hadden’s Tennessee Stats: 87 tackles, 5.5 TFL, 6 INTs, 12 passes defended

Hadden addressed the situation with a post on Instagram:

“I put everything I had in it. Just to get right this last round, Learning how to not always be right, but also Learning how to be right and still make correction to be even better. Learning it’s a right way and it’s a wrong way to situations. I was stuck in my ways for a long time thinking I had all the answers. With time I learned change is a part of growing, and you gotta sacrifice to grow.

“I was just getting comfortable, the work was just starting to show, I was showing the world what I already knew. My last year, my bag year, and I strike out.. I feel like I let everybody down. The fam, gang, the team, everybody.

“But I always took the longer route, I always was in a fight with adversity, I always had it a lil harder, I always wanted it a lil tougher cause at the end the win a lil more greater … I’ll be having season ending surgery this morning. The get back start now.”

Hadden came to Tennessee after previous stops at Independence Community College in Kansas and at Auburn.

Over the last three seasons he has 87 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, six interceptions, 18 passes defended and two forced fumbles.

In his first season at Tennessee in 2021, Hadden had 17 tackles in seven games, with 2.0 tackles for loss and an interception. He had 30 tackles over nine games in 2022, with two interception and three passes defended. 

Up next: No. 21 Tennessee at Kentucky, Saturday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN

Tennessee defensive backs coach Willie Martinez last week spoke about the developmental process for Hadden, the 6-foot-1, 197-pounder out of River Rouge, Michigan.

“Everybody has a developmental process,” Martinez said last week. “Everybody will develop at certain stages in their lives, quicker or obviously it’s gonna take a little bit of time. And obviously we know if somebody that had a talent, that was talented, was athletic and knew that he had the skills just working, preparing. 

“This is his third year. He actually, because of the injuries, this was his first time he ever went through spring ball in developing. And obviously he took it through the summer and in the fall camp. And obviously now he’s put it to work in the games on a more consistent basis.”

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