Landon Feggins joined the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program as a freshman in the summer of 2024, and the former McMinn County High School standout did so with a particular idea of what jersey he wanted to wear: No. 41.
The trouble with his plan was that number already belonged to Alex Mitchell, a fellow linebacker who was coming off a sophomore season in which he had established himself as one of the most talented players on the team, having helped UTC reach the second round of the 2023 Football Championship Subdivision playoffs in the program’s first postseason appearance since 2016. (And interestingly enough, Feggins and Mitchell bear a striking resemblance to each other.)
Feggins is far from the first athlete to be attached to a certain jersey number, but for him it goes beyond the fact that he had worn it previously; he had worn it for years with some extra emotional attachment to what it represents. Feggins was one of four kids raised by single mother Elle Leonard, so for him, that’s what “41” is all about: a tribute to his mom and all she has done, as one parent, for her four children.
Mitchell changed his number to 2 in his final season at UTC — he was the team’s leading tackler for the second season in a row, getting 101 as a junior last fall after posting 78 in 2023 — before moving on to Football Bowl Subdivision member Middle Tennessee State University in his hometown of Murfreesboro for his final season of college football.
And so Feggins’ tribute to Leonard continued at UTC.