The Texas quarterback room will be down a body when spring practice begins.

Josh Covey, the No. 3 quarterback in 2017 behind Shane Buechele and Sam Ehlinger, is transferring to FCS Stephen F. Austin to continue his football career. Covey’s head coach at Georgetown East View, Rob Davies, told the Austin American-Statesman that “while Covey enjoyed his time at Texas, he was looking for an opportunity to play.”

What's next for the Longhorns? Make sure you're in the loop by signing up for our FREE Texas newsletter!

The Twitter account dedicated to the Texas walk-ons released a statement from Covey on Friday:

Since Covey was a walk-on and not a scholarship player, this move does nothing to impact that 85-man scholarship limit. With Buechele and Ehlinger both back for 2018, Covey’s workload in practice was expected to be cut down from what it already was due to 2018 signees Cameron Rising and Casey Thompson enrolling for the spring semester.

Along with the four scholarship quarterbacks the Longhorns have on the roster, Tom Herman and the offensive staff had a quarterback package available for wide receiver Jerrod Heard. Heard was effectively the emergency quarterback over Covey this past season.

Covey's last play as a Longhorn was taking a knee out of the victory formation on the final play of the team's 33-16 victory over Missouri in the Academy Sports + Outdoors Texas Bowl last month.

Keep up on all of the latest Texas news as the Longhorns approach National Signing Day by taking advantage of this offer!