When it came to hiring his assistants at the University of Hawaii, head football coach Norm Chow said he “subscribed to the Bill Belichick 20/20 theory.”

“You know what that is?” Chow asked. “You hire young guys at $20,000 … and you make ’em work 20 hours a day.”

He was partially kidding, we think.

But there is little doubt the staff that Chow finished assembling this week reflects a significant departure from the one that had been the oldest in school history.

Including then-head coach Greg McMackin, the Warriors’ 10-man staff averaged 51.8 years per man in 2011. Chow’s comes in at 45.2 years.

If the UH coaching staff is no longer a contender for the cover of the AARP magazine and has lost out on potential marketing opportunities with Ensure, it is by both design and necessity to be more energetic and relentless.

Remember, from the first day, Chow pledged to out-work anybody questioning his stamina and, as proof, welcomed folks to come by at night and see if the light was still on in his office.

Of course, the 65-year-old Chow is more apt to be found going to or from an airport this week as the Warriors spread out far and wide in an 11th-hour recruiting blitz in advance of the Feb. 1 national letter of intent signing date.

His is a staff that, by circumstance, should bring a hunger to the job, with the head coach leading by example. The approximately $1.7 million total UH is investing in salary for the 10-man staff represents a nearly $500,000 drop from last season and is the lowest figure since midway through the June Jones era.

Salaries for Chow and defensive coordinator Thom Kaumeyer are said to account for about $800,000 of that — or about $300,000 less than McMackin made by himself in 2011.

So it has taken some creative salary cap maneuvering to put this staff together at a time when the average for assistant coaches on the major college level is booming at about $190,000 each and climbing by the day. A rate well above the Warriors’ current means.

Earlier this week, for example, Washington hired a position coach — not a coordinator — away from California by tripling his salary to a reported $500,000 and, so the story goes, tossing in a boat.

Meanwhile in Manoa, Chow said, “You just do what you have to do. You try to get guys who are (hungry). And, fortunately, some are bachelors and they don’t take much to live on. You just go from there.”

Said Chow, “I hope, if we have success, people will appreciate that. But, right now, we have to prove ourselves.”

Indeed, if the local application of that “Belichick 20/20 theory” comes anywhere near approximating the original — and Belichick has sent more than a half dozen ex-assistants into the head coaching ranks — UH will be the winner for it.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.