Nick Saban insists he's happy whenever JK Scott kicks the ball off and the result is a touchback.

But a funny thing has happened on the many occasions when that hasn't been the outcome.

Of the 33 times opponents have returned Scott's kickoffs this season, they have started their ensuing offensive possession past the 25-yard line only seven times.

This has been a fortuitous -- but not intentional -- result, Saban explained.

"We're not the New England Patriots and we're not taking the tack of trying to kick the ball short so we can get better field position," Saban said.

Saban mentioned the Patriots because they took an aggressive, creative approach after the NFL, in 2016, adopted a new rule moving the touchback line five yards farther forward to the 25-yard line just as the NCAA did four years earlier.

"We'll see how it all plays out, but in looking at a few other games it looks like there are a lot of teams that are doing some of the directional, corner-type kicking with good hang time," New England coach Bill Belichick, Saban's former boss, said in September 2016. "Just kind of popping the ball up in the air and making teams bring it out, which isn't surprising."

Last season, only 72 percent of the Patriots' 93 kickoffs reached the end zone -- the seventh-lowest rate in the NFL.

The year before, when the touchback line was still the 20, 90.8 percent of their kickoffs crossed the goal line.

The kicker both seasons was Stephen Gotskowski.

"I think getting the ball out to the 25-yard line is obviously harder than getting it out to the 20 and those touchbacks that put it on the 20," Belichick said. "I mean I know it's only five yards and five yards is five yards, but it just seems like it's a lot easier for teams to just touchback and put the ball on the 20, whereas now there's just a little more incentive to make them return it to the 25 as opposed to just handing them the ball on the 25-yard line."

Indeed there is.

In the 2016 regular season, NFL teams had less than a 30-percent success rate of reaching the touchback line when they elected to field the ball.

This year, Alabama's opponents have fared even worse -- starting the drive following the kickoff at the 25-yard line or farther only 24 percent of the time.

Despite this fact, Saban said Alabama is not trying to induce a return.

"Not intentionally," Saban said. "You can go ahead and ask the question, although it's sort of one of those we're kind of pulling out of the sky here."

But anecdotal and empirical evidence suggests otherwise.

Just look at the film from Alabama's 45-7 victory over Tennessee. On the two occasions Scott kicked the ball deep into the end zone to produce a touchback, he directed the ball toward the center of the field. On the other six kickoffs, when the ball landed just short of the goal line or a few yards past it, he aimed toward the left corner.

In four of those instances, Tennessee elected to execute a return, and three times the Volunteers were stopped short of the 25-yard line.

"The most important thing on kickoffs is placement," Scott said last month. "You want to get it closer to the corner, more like on the numbers because that's how our coverage is most successful, when we place it in that area. That's what I focus on the most. Obviously they want touchbacks but placement is most important."

That's especially true if the team kicking off is attempting to coax a return.

"I'm happy with the way our guys cover, and I have a lot of confidence in it and we've had a lot of tackles inside the 20," Saban conceded. "So our drive start for kickoff coverage has been very good. And sometimes it's probably been better when we haven't kicked it in the end zone. But there's always the threat that they could make an explosive play if you don't get great coverage."

This season, though, the reward has outweighed the risk, and that makes Alabama's kickoff strategy a smart one.

Rainer Sabin is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @RainerSabin