networking issues

You may have been too direct. In order to get an interview through networking you usually have to build a relationship with the person you are speaking with first through multiple conversations/emails/etc. (not always but quite often so). Try asking him the basics ("how did you end up in PE", "what would you recommend for someone like me to do", etc.) and take it from there.

that's what I was thinking going into it... I didn't ask about an interview but I did ask about a "best path" and I think he started talking about target schools from there...

I've had this too.

The head on approach would be to re-assert your motivation and drive, especially having come from a non-target. Try to show him that you have something to offer that the target students do not.

The other approach is to get him to treat it more as a trial. This way if things don't work out then there isn't a mess to clean up afterwards so it's less work and liability on his part.

Good luck!

Edit: I guess the gist of what I'm trying to say is, regardless of your approach, you need to convince him that you can be useful to him and that you can do the job.

The fact that he said they "usually" don't accommodate non-target candidates indicates a few things to me. 1) You came on too strong. You didn't develop much of a relationship or establish much context but dove straight into "HIRE ME NOW PLEASE." 2) He's willing to give a chance. He isn't using absolute language, so the "usually" means you can still recover.

Take that for what it's worth.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527023045631045763594602285977…

Surprised he framed it that way. Did he use the term non-target (which is largely a construct of WSO)? He may have meant that they recruit from X,Y, and Z schools and don't look for candidates elsewhere, not that they only look at candidates from schools X and Better. Also, for many people the cut-off between target and non-target starts one school behind wherever they went. Notre Dame gets a good number of recruiters, but Carnagie Mellon isn't exactly North Central Cattle University and Cosmetology School.

Really surprised if this guy used the term "target" or what have you. in my opinion, goes to show a lot about his character, or what it lacks

Saying 'target' isn't a bad thing. Recruiters tend to be very frank about that, i.e. "We have a certain number of partner schools" or " target schools we enjoy a relationship with," that's nothing uncommon. What would actually be poorly reflective would be if he used non-target, typically everyone's pretty nice about referring to targets as targets and other schools in still a positive light.