Georgia wide receiver Rara Thomas has entered the transfer portal.

With the 2024 college football regular season officially over, players around the country will start announcing their plans regarding the transfer portal and the NFL draft. That includes the Georgia Bulldogs, who are currently in the hunt for a national title.

Georgia was very active in the transfer portal last season as they had a good number of players leave the roster while also adding to their roster via the portal. It has become a large phenomenon in college football that all football programs have to deal with every offseason. The transfer portal officially opens on Dec. 9th and will remain open until Dec. 28th. There will also be a window that opens during the spring time, but that isn’t until late April.

The latest Bulldog to enter is wide receiver Rara Thomas who joined the Bulldogs’ roster last season. He transferred from Mississippi State but was suspended indefinitely prior to the 2024 season. The event occurred July 26th, Thomas was arrested for three counts of Cruelty to Children in the 2nd Degree, and three counts of Battery – FV. He was suspended from the team following the incident.

In 2023, Thomas had 23 receptions for 383 yards and touchdown in his lone season with the Dawgs.

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While a cold front moves across Savannah and the Golden Isles throughout the weekend and the early part of Christmas week, the forecast for snow looks bleak.

The temperature will be around 53 degrees on Christmas Eve, but it will warm to 63 degrees Christmas morning in Savannah, according to AccuWeather’s 10-day forecast.

Low temperatures are forecasted to be in the low 40s each morning. Its forecasted for dry weather both days, with intervals of cloud and sunshine.

A cold front will pass through Georgia late Saturday and bring colder temperatures to the state for the weekend, with lows in Savannah dropping into the mid-20s and highs on Sunday and Monday only reaching the upper-40s.

In other parts of the state it is expected to be cooler but no precipitation in the forecast. Athens will only reach a high of 44 on Christmas Eve but is expected to reach 53 on Christmas Day.

Augusta is expecting highs in the 50s both days while Dalton will have a high of 47 on Christmas Eve and reach 54 on Christmas Day.

Hiawassee will reach 50 on Christmas Day, with a chance of a passing shower in the evening.

But, sadly for many in the state, no snow.

Has it snowed on Christmas in Georgia?

While it’s rare, the last significant event was in 2010 when Athens received two inches of snow on Christmas Day while Atlanta received a little more than an inch.

An ice storm in 1962 affected north Georgia, according to the National Weather Service, which had its biggest impact in Gainesville, downing numerous trees and powerlines and causing power outages.

A snow storm in Savannah just before Christmas in 1989 remained on the ground Christmas Day, and remains the only measurable snow on the day in recorded history.

What is the average temperature on Christmas Day in Georgia?

Average highs across north Georgia are in the mid-40s while the southern half of the state is typically in the mid-50s, according to the NWS.

Average low temperatures range from the mid-20s for north Georgia to mid-40s for south Georgia.

Ryne Dennis is the Deep South Connect Team Editor for Gannett/USA Today. Find him on X@RyneDennis and email atrdennis@onlineathens.com. 

Public education in Georgia will likely see sweeping changes in 2025, as the Georgia Promise Scholarship, a program that allows families to divert public education funding towards private school tuition and other educational expenses, takes effect. 

However, the pool of eligible students may far exceed what many legislators anticipated when passing the bill, SB 233, during the 2024 legislative session.  

More: Georgia Senate passes school voucher bill promising $6,500 per student for tuition

The Georgia Promise Scholarship, authored by state Sen. Greg Dolezal (R-Cumming), was intended to allow students enrolled in the lowest 25th percentile of Georgia schools (based on the last two school years’ averages of the College and Career Ready Performance Index) to receive up to $6,500 each year to put towards private school tuition, school supplies, tutoring and other educational expenses. However, rules adopted by the Georgia Education Savings Authority on Nov. 18 expanded the eligibility to all those who live in such a school’s attendance zone, even if they do not attend the school. 

Multiple legislators said they didn’t realize how broadly the law could be interpreted, and plan to reign in the eligibility requirement for the Georgia Promise Scholarship during the upcoming session. 

“That wasn’t my understanding,” House Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones (R-Milton) told the Associated Press. 

Voucher programs have been criticized by public school advocates, who say that voucher programs divert funds from struggling schools. Though the funds would not come out of Quality Basic Education (QBE), the formula that determines how much money public schools across Georgia receive from the state each year, QBE is calculated using full-time equivalent (FTE) student counts, meaning that public schools receive less money when their enrollment drops. 

More: These ‘lower performing’ Savannah schools are eligible for new Promise Scholarship

In Savannah, students enrolled in one of 18 approved schools in the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) could soon be eligible to apply for the Georgia Promise Scholarship. The application window is expected to open in January 2025. 

Maya Homan is a 2024 election fellow at USA TODAY who focuses on Georgia politics. She is @MayaHoman on X, formerly Twitter.