Kumar Rocker’s father and uncle used their strong arms to make tackles on the college and professional football fields.

Breaking from family tradi- tion, the 21-year-old Rocker is utilizing his powerful right arm to carve a niche of his own on the baseball mound.

The intimidating 6-foot-5, 245-pound right-hander has helped vault Vanderbilt University in the finals of the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Vanderbilt began this week set to play Mississippi State University in the best-of-three finals.

Rocker’s uncle, was a consensus All-American defensive lineman at Auburn and played with the Los Angeles Rams 1991 to 1994.

Rocker played football at North Oconee High School in Bogart, Ga., but settled on baseball for college.

As a Vanderbilt freshman in 2019, he drew national attention by firing a no-hitter with 19 strikeouts in a Super Regional win over Duke University. Later that season, he was named Most Outstanding Player at the College World Series.

Rocker was the starting pitcher but did not get the decision in the Commodores’ 7-6, 12- inning win over Arizona in its series opener on June 19. He came back June 26 with an overpowering performance in Vanderbilt’s 3-1 elimination game win over North Carolina State University.

In six innings, the junior struck out 11 Wolf- pack hitters while walking only one.

Located in Nashville, Vanderbilt won the series in 2014 and 2019, when Rocker was a freshman, and lost to the University of Virginia in the 2015 finals.

The name Rocker is familiar among football enthusiasts.

Defensive lineman Tracy Rocker, Kumar’s dad, was the Lombardi Award and Outland Tro- phy winner for Auburn University and played with the Washington Football Team from 1989 to 1990. He is now the defensive line coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.

David Rocker, Tracy’s brother and the younger The 2020 season was wiped out by the pandemic but the layoff didn’t affect Rocker. He returned stronger than ever for the Commodores as a junior.

Showing off a 97 mph fastball and a sharp-breaking slider, Rocker is 13-3 this season with a 2.46 earned run average. He had 155 strikeouts in just 106 innings heading to Omaha.

Rocker fanned 11 in seven innings in picking up the 2-0 win over East Carolina University in the Nashville Super Regional.

He was named All-Southeastern Conference and was also a finalist for the Dick Howser Award, which goes to the nation’s top college player.

Regardless of what happens this week at the World Series, Rocker is projected to be among the first 10 players selected in the July 11-13 Major League Baseball draft.

That would give Kumar bragging rights around the Rocker dinner table. Father Tracy was a third round NFL pick in 1989, while uncle David was a fourth round selection in 1991.